Teiko's Princess
by J Fanfic
Summary: She was saved from being taken to the orphanage by the Akashi family, saved from despair by the family's only son through a sport. Now years after, they were ready to enter the most prestigious middle school in Tokyo but had found the rules and customs of this school rather cold and colorless. But once she entered, would it change? Fem!Kuroko no pairings yet.
1. Chapter 1

**Teiko's Princess  
**

**First Quarter: Taking the First Steps  
**

Summer. The clear blue sky with the sun's rays glaring down onto the city of Tokyo. In the suburbs and parks, lively cicadas let their presence known with their loud clicking as they rested in the shadows of trees and walls.

Leaning forward on the window of a certain house with his arms crossed, a young red haired child around the age of four stared out at his neighborhood with a bored look. There was nothing to do inside his house and his fingers twitched once in a while, wanting to do something. _Anything_. Just so he could clear out his boredom.

The heat wasn't helping either as sweat continued to accumulate on him. He sighed.

_There's nothing to do...I'm so bored here!_

The muffled sound of the front door opening and closing followed by _'Tadaima!'_ caught his attention and his face lit up, immediately running out of his bedroom and down the stairs, calling out. "Okairi!"

Along with his parents, someone else was at the back. He looked about the same age as his father, wearing a blue and white track suit with a duffel bag by his side. Hearing the young boy racing down the stairs, he looked up and smiled. "So this is Seijuro-kun?"

"Yeah." His father answered, turning to his son and beckoning him to come over to greet the stranger. "Come here Seijuro, don't be shy."

The young boy walked up to the stranger, noticing how tall the person was. How could anyone be this tall?! Seijuro looked up with his mouth slightly agape at the giant in front of him. He's even taller than his father!

"Hello, Seijuro-kun." The stranger greeted, crouching down to young Seijuro's level. "I'm Kuroko Koutou. Pleased to meet you." He grinned, patting the young boy on the head.

He had light blue hair and lashes and matching colored eyes. And his hands was probably big enough to engulf Seijuro's head. Ruffling the boy's hair a little bit more, Koutou stood back up and took off his shoes, politely excusing himself as he stepped onto the wooden floor of the house.

"Koutou, you can wait in the living room for the moment, I'll have Rin make some tea for you!" Seijuro's father called out from upstairs.

On cue, Seijuro's mother lead the tall man into the living room with the young redhead following them.

"Seems like Akito's in high spirit today." The tall man remarked as he sat on the couch of the living room. "I haven't seen him like that in a while!"

"He was recently been chosen to lead the company he's working in. Apparently, the current CEO have always had his sights on him, saying that he was the 'perfect' successor." Seijuro's mother smiled as she went out of the living room calling back. "Seijuro, don't give any troubles to Kuroko-san, okay? I'll be back with some tea."

"Hai." Seijuro answered back, sitting on the couch with the tall Kuroko Koutou-san. It was really strange sitting side by side and not talking and both of them could feel it. Soon enough, the young boy asked. "Kuroko-san, why are you so tall?"

Finding the question amusing, the tall man chuckled before answering back. "Well, I guess I was born this way."

"Born this way?" Seijuro echoed, cocking his head to the side curiously.

"Hm. Maybe basketball have something to do with it." Koutou pondered, tapping his chin lightly as he looked up in thought.

"Basketball?" The young boy seemed intrigued. What is this 'Basketball' this man was talking about?

"It's a game with a ball." The man explained, reaching for the duffel bag beside him and grabbing out an orange ball out of the bag. It looked tiny while the man held the ball but when given to young Seijuro, it was huge! "Here."

The boy got off his feet as he carried the ball, feeling the rough bumpy surface of it with his arms and staring at it like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. He looked back up to see the man nodding in response, giving him permission to play around with the ball although he didn't quite know what to do with it.

"Seijuro-kun never seen a basketball?"

The boy shook his head.

"Odd. I thought that your dad would definitely introduce you to it by now." He studied the boy as he randomly rolled the ball around. "Hehe, you'll probably get along with my daughter if you two were around."

The boy looked up curiously and Koutou fished out his cellphone, flipping it open and showing the screen's wallpaper to the boy. In it was a picture of a girl about her age with long light blue hair and eyes just like the tall man smiling cheerfully as she hugged onto a basketball plushie.

"Who's that?" Seijuro asked.

"That's Takara, meaning 'Treasure'. She's almost a year younger than you." Koutou chuckled as he returned the phone to his pocket. I'm sure you two will get along if you meet!"

"I want to play with her!" Seijuro beamed as he held the ball with both hands up above his head.

"Careful now, don't play in the living room." Akashi Rin giggled as her son nodded and jumped back onto the sofa and handing the ball back to Koutou. "Here's the tea."

"Oh, you showing Seijuro basketball?" Seijuro's father asked as he walked in. "I was thinking about introducing him to it." He laughed as he sat on the opposite sofa with the glass low table between the two.

"Well, looks like I beat you to it." Koutou grinned as he picked up one of the cups of tea on the table, taking a light sip from it.

"Well, he can try it out for now. Seijuro, mind going out in the yard to play?" His father took the other cup as well. "You can take Kuroko-san's ball and play outside."

"Nn!" The boy replied happily as he got the ball from the tall man before dashing out into the yard to play around with the ball.

It wasn't long before Seijuro noticed that the ball bounced pretty high on hard ground. It was quite fun to try with all his might to see how high the ball could bounce.

_I wonder what if I stop it from bouncing so high? _He thought as he once again bounced the ball but this time stopping it with his hand and once again, it hit the floor and immediately bounced back up again but it went out of his hands. Interesting!

For the next few minutes, the young boy continued to try and see how long can he control the ball from leaving his side while bouncing it until the adults came out onto the yard.

"Seijuro-kun learned how to dribble!" The tall man laughed. "He's pretty good!"

"Haha. Maybe we could show Seijuro how to play, neh?" Akashi Akito grinned as he crouched down with both arms held in front of him. "Seijuro! Try throwing the ball this way!"

The young boy grinned as he threw the ball with all his might and barely reached the distance where both Koutou and his father was. Seeing that, the boy felt somewhat disheartened to see that it didn't make it all the way to his father.

Noticing Seijuro's expression, his father walked up and ruffled his son's hair. "Don't worry, it wasn't bad! You did great! Say, you wanna watch as me and Kuroko-san play basketball?

Hearing that, the young boy beamed again and nodded enthusiastically, earning a chuckle from his father.

"Alright then! Let's go!" He picked the boy up and perched him sitting on his shoulder as he held the ball under his free arm. The boy cheered and playfully ordered his dad to move forward as they walked towards a nearby park. The young redhead was so excited that he couldn't sit still on his father's shoulder that time as they continued their walk.

Not long later, they had reached a nearby park and right beside it, Seijuro could make out a tall fence surrounding a small area. Entering the area, the young boy noticed that the shape of the area was rectangular and there were two posts on either far sides of the place with a basket-like net sticking outwards facing each other. Lines were visible on the ground although the boy wondered what they were. The place looked really interesting and the boy just couldn't wait to be set down on the ground!

As soon as he was back on the ground, the boy ran up to one of the posts and curiously examined it before waving back at the two adults. "Otou-san! What is this?"

"That's a Basketball post." His father answered, taking off his jacket to reveal the jersey he was wearing. "It's where we score points."

"You still have that old jersey of yours?" Koutou laughed as he teased Akito. "I can't believe that thing still fits you!"

"Ah, give me a break. It wasn't _that_ old!" Seijuro's father lightly punched the taller man's shoulder before jogging onto the middle court followed by Koutou. "Alright! Let's start! Seijuro, stay near the bench over there and watch your daddy beat this guy." He pointed back to where he and Koutou left their jackets and the young boy nodded before leaving the post to sit on the bench.

"Your son's pretty obedient." Koutou commented as he readied himself as the one on defense.

"Of course! He's disciplined." Akito answered, getting into the same position in front of the taller man, his eyes narrowing with a grin. "One on one, ten points."

"You're on."

Immediately, the air around the court tensed up as the two stared each other down as if their eyes could kill. Their grins never left their face as they continued to stay hunched ready on the court. But soon, the air was broken as Akito moved to the right only to stop halfway and instantly switching direction, running for three steps to the left before being stopped again by the taller man.

"Not a very impressive fake." Koutou commented with a smirk.

"Heh."

Again, the shorter man moved but this time much more fluidly and swiftly, side-dashing to the left before ducking to the right and passing through the taller man while he was still moving due to the momentum when he was moving to the left. Koutou gaped as Akito easily sprinted past him and did a simple lay up, watching as the ball beautifully entering the hoop without touching the rim.

Seijuro on the bench could only stare in awe at what his father just did. He couldn't even catch up with the speed his father had shown when he got past Kuroko-san. It was amazing!

"Looks like you haven't lost your touch." Koutou's remark made Akito grin triumphantly. "...Although you're fourty years old." That ticked him a bit.

"Oi! I'm only thirty two! And you're about the same age as me!"

"Hai hai, let's keep going." The taller man waved dismissively as he went back into position as did Seijuro's father.

"One zero." The smaller man smugly said as he once again started dribbling the ball.

"Come on."

With that, Akito switched the ball from his left to his right but stepped to his left, hoping that the taller man would fall for it but failed to as he backed one step and walked to the right again. _Koutou seemed to be taking up a more sturdier defense this time. Better off playing it safe. _Akito thought before stopping again. Bending down with a burst of speed, the shorter man sprinted once again towards the left, barely passing Koutou and reaching the three-pointer line and halting instantly, making Koutou nearly running past Akito.

But without pause, the offensive player seemed to have slidbackwards in a flash and jumped, shooting the ball and making a perfect shot into the hoop, earning him another point.

"Two zero." Akito announced proudly before being passed the ball again.

"Not bad." Koutou grinned, impressed that his friend was still as strong as he was. "But..."

As soon as the third round stopped, the ball was slapped out of the smaller man's hand without him realizing and was soon on the defense as Koutou got the ball. "...This is just starting!" He finished what he was saying before charging in, dodging Akito's attempt to steal the ball and making three pointer near the middle of the court.

"Dang. Nice one." The smaller man huffed as he jogged to get the ball back before passing it to Koutou. "Two one."

For the next few rounds, they kept scoring after another until finally the flow was ultimately changed when Koutou faked to the left then right then passing the ball between Akito's leg and sprinting towards the goal, jumping as soon as he was under it and slammed the ball into the hoop.

"I win!" Koutou turned around, picking up the ball and passing it to Akito.

"Yep. Nine ten." Seijuro's father sighed. "Ah man. I haven't played like this in a long time. Was fun."

"Yeah, it was." Koutou chuckled.

"Seijuro, what do you think?" Akito asked, turning to his young son who was eagerly watching the whole game on the bench. "Do you wanna try?"

The young boy's face was lit even more as he got off the bench, nodding. "Nn~ I wanna try!"

"Whoa there." Koutou caught up, giving the young boy a pat on the head. "Unfortunately I have to get going. Sorry."

Seijuro pouted when he heard that. He really wanted to try.

"Don't worry, your Otou-san here will teach ya." The tall man assured, glancing towards the shorter man with a smirk.

"You bet I will."

"Anyway. I'll bring my daughter over as well the next time I visit." Koutou grinned. "Seijuro-kun and Takara will definitely get along."

"Hehe. You'll never know but we'll see." Akito laughed.

Soon, they left the court with Seijuro once again on top of his father's shoulder as they head for home and parting ways with Koutou half the way. Both father and son continued back home as they looked up into the evening sky, admiring the darkening view until the first dim specks of twinkling from stars began to appear on the dark blue sky.

"Neh, Otou-san." Seijuro wondered as he continued to look up at the sky. "What's good about playing basketball?"

"Hm?" Akito looked at his son who was perched on his shoulder, wondering how should he answer the question. "Well, I guess the first and foremost for me is the fun and enjoyment of it."

"Fun and enjoyment?" The young boy cocked his head.

"Yeah." His father grinned. "That's what I think that made me stick to basketball like glue."

Seijuro returned the smile. Basketball seems really fun! He couldn't wait to try it!

* * *

A year later, the young redhead had grasped the basics of the game. He had also seen live basketball matches during the nationals season and it only made the boy that much more hyped to practice and play basketball more. The players that were playing in the matches were awe inspiring and Seijuro had since then determined to be just as good in the sport.

Along the way, his father had taught him another game but it was playable indoors on the table, Shogi. When he first introduced the young boy the chess board game, he had told him that this would strengthen his mind and allow the young redhead quick thinking and tactical planning which would be extremely useful in the future...Although the poor boy didn't understand it at first.

He had strictly remembered what his father taught him that day, the strategies and methods that could execute the pieces' potentials. That's what he would learn by playing numerous matches with his father and other people. He would even play by himself, moving the pieces of both teams, countering himself each turn and push his mind to outwit himself.

And right now, he was in the middle of one of those games, patiently observing and tactically thinking. Despite the age of five, the young redhead was extraordinarily smart, having his mind trained for the past year by himself and sometimes with the help of his father when he was not busy. But his game was interrupted when he heard the front door unlock and quickly dashed from the living room to the main corridor to see who it was.

"Otou-san! Okairi!" Seijuro greeted his father, standing near the living room's entrance.

"Ah, Seijuro." Akito greeted his son, closing the umbrella and allowing the excess water to drip from the tip as he took off his shoes. "I have someone that I'd like you to meet."

As his father said that, lightning and thunder boomed as if on cue. When his father looked up then, the solemn and sad look in his eyes and the tone of this voice gave the house's atmosphere an ominous and gloomy feel to it. But what surprised the young boy the most was that he didn't notice the young girl beside his father who was staring at him by Akito's side.

The girl was about the same age as him with long light blue hair. Her eyes had a dead look to them as if she had given up any hopes of living as she stared at Seijuro. Her expression was just as gloomy as his father's and it only adds to the confusion the young boy has. A few seconds past before the young boy couldn't take it and asked.

"Who is this?"

"She's Kuroko Takara, Seijuro." The name rang a bell as he recalled who had said that name before.

_"That's Takara, meaning 'Treasure'."_

"She's Kuroko Koutou's daughter... She will be living with us from now on." His father informed him, giving the little girl a gentle push towards Seijuro which she stumbled a bit before Seijuro came and caught her before she fell. Now with a closer view, he had a closer look into the blue haired girl's eyes. They sent a cold chill down his spine as they slowly looked up at him. He didn't like the void look they gave off...

Trying to lighten the atmosphere, the redhead smiled. "I'm Akashi Seijuro. Pleased to meet you."

She didn't answer. But the young boy shrugged it off, something told him that now was not the time to fuss over something like this. Gently tugging onto her hand, he lead her to the living room. "Come on, you should sit and rest a bit."

It was rather awkward, having the two kids just sitting in the living room. Facing each other on opposite couches with nothing to say or do. Seijuro was the most ticked about it. He had no idea what was going on and every minute he spent with the blue haired girl had just continued to increase the confusion within the young redhead's mind.

Why is she here? What happened to Koutou-san? How long is she living here? His mind kept these questions in a loop and it irritates him to no end. He didn't like the look she has, he didn't like the atmosphere at this very moment. He had to change it somehow.

"Sei! Come help me take the tea to the living room please!" His mother called out from the kitchen down the hall.

"Hai!" The young boy called back, getting off the couch and glanced at the silent girl. "I'll be back with tea." It was strange. He didn't need to inform her but for some reason, he just did. The blue haired girl looked up and despite the blank and empty expression, the young redhead could see the faint pleading look in her eyes as if begging him to stay.

But reluctantly, the boy left her there but stopped just at the doorway and assured her firmly. "I'll be back. Promise, neh?" and left to grab the tea.

Entering the kitchen. her mother had already started preparation of a meal although it was still too early for supper. Curious, the boy walked up beside his mother and looked at what her mother was cooking before asking. "What's this for, Okasan?"

"It's for Takara-chan." Her mother answered, smiling a small smile. "Maybe it could cheer her up...I hope."

"Cheer her up?"

"It's nothing, Sei-chan!" Her mother would only add the -chan prefix whenever she wants to switch topics and distract her son. Even though Seijuro knew that, he couldn't help but retort to that. "Now hurry and bring the tea to her, neh?"

"Mou...Don't add -chan to my name, Okasan!" He complained before walking over to the tray where two cups of tea were and carried it back to the living where he noticed that the girl was now huddled up at a corner of the sofa with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapping around them. Head dug into the folded arms but her sobbing could still be muffled through.

_She's...Crying..._

"Papa..." Her muffled soft voice could be heard between her sobs as the young boy got closer. Setting down the tray, Seijuro was at a loss on what to do next as he awkwardly stood there, just watching and hearing her crying. What could he do? He fiddled a bit, wondering with all his might just what exactly could he do that could cheer the girl up.

_Think, Seijuro! Think!_

A ridiculous idea popped into his mind as he attempted to think of a way to get her to stop crying and immediately, he gibbered out 'I'll be back!' and dashed out of the living room and scrambled up the stairs, reaching his room within ten seconds flat and began to rapidly clean up the room of his shogi pieces and the board before heading back down with it.

Setting it down on the small table between them with a small thump, catching the girl's attention, the young boy just grinned at her. Clearly, the girl didn't know what exactly was that laid in front of her as she stared at the shogi board with her teary bloodshot eyes in mild curiosity. That's great! It seemed that his idea is working...Somewhat.

"Wanna know what it is?" He eagerly inquired her, which she nodded slowly. "This is Shogi!"

Instead of vocally responding, she tilted her head questioningly.

"It's a board game! Wanna try it?"

She didn't say anything at first, switching her eyes from the board to Seijuro for a a few times before nodding. "Mm..."

Her voice was still shaky but at least it seems her mind is now currently away from whatever sad things she was thinking of earlier. This might work! "Here, let me teach you!"

At least for now, she seemed to be opening up a bit...The young boy tried to keep her focused on this game so that the mood would gradually change overtime. Within minutes, the girl seemed to have gotten the grasp of the game which surprised the young redhead as she seemed to be a fast learner like him except she might be even _faster_ than him.

It wasn't long before his mother came in with a nice meal comprised of a small children-sized bowl of miso soup and a small plate of rice with some little vegetables and a bit of meat chopped into little cubes at the side of the rice. "Uwah, Takara-chan! You know how to play shogi too?!"

The girl merely shook her head and looked up at Seijuro who answered for her. "No, I taught her just now."

"Oh? That's something!" His mother clapped her hands together. "I never thought you'd teach someone!"

"T-That's not true!" The young redhead flustered, taking a glance over to the girl and just for a second, he thought he saw a soft smile on her lips but it was there only for a mere fraction of a section. But somewhere in his mind, he knew it was not his imagination. He felt like he accomplished something from that and despite being flushed red, he had a triumphant grin. "W-Well, let's keep playing! The game's not over!"

The girl nodded and the mother just watched as the two continued to play shogi, their eyes focused intently on the board in front of them before taking her leave to return back to the kitchen. It seemed that her son had taken a liking for the light-blue haired girl who was now an addition to the family. A soft smile of relief appeared on her face and it stayed there for the entirety of the day until night.

* * *

_*RING! RING*_

The redhead tapped the top of the alarm clock and grumbled as he got up from his bed. Looking over at the calendar, he read the date; April 14. The start of his first year in Middle School. Glancing over to the clock that had just woke him up, it showed that it was still six in the morning but he knew that once he was up, he would never be able to get back to sleep again and reluctantly left the soft comforts of his bed.

His room was spacious, its size comparable to a one-room apartment except it was a full bedroom and not an apartment. With much of its space being empty, the room's furniture on consisted of a dresser, a room closet, a bed with a night stand and lastly a set of couches which were set on the corner nearest to the door with a small glass coffee table for guests if they were visiting. Although there had never been anyone that was on good terms to visit his home.

A knock came from the other side of the door as he was heading towards it, getting his attention and letting out a grunt in response.

"Seijuro-sama," The voice of a polite middle-aged man greeted from the other side of the door. "Good morning."

"Good morning Okanatsu. You may come in." The boy returned the greeting along with giving the person on the other side permission to enter.

"Yes sir." The door opened, revealing a man with graying hair and a well trimmed mustache, his attire consist of a black suit with a white collar and fancy looking trimmings completed with a black bow tie and dress shoes. Bowing politely, he entered the room and waited.

"So what brings you to come get me, Okanatsu?" Seijuro asked as he walked past him, heading his way down the large hallway with the butler following behind him.

"Takara-sama wanted to inform you that she would be leaving first."

"I see." The boy merely muttered but inside he was restraining himself from busting out of their house to find her. She had tried countless times to convince him that she would be alright being alone outside but it was only recently when he started to give in and try to not be so protective of her. Throughout the eight years they had spent together, Seijuro had always treated her like his very own little sister despite the fact that they were not related. But ever since they had adopted her at the age of four, even the whole Akashi family started treating her like their very own daughter. At first it was merely because of sympathy and empathy but it was soon developed into genuine familial love.

Although still keeping her original surname, she was still treated as an official Akashi family member and thus would also inherit the family fortune along with Seijuro. It was only three years ago when the Akashi family had taken over a rather well known and big company in Japan and once his father was the new CEO, the company blossomed even further, eventually having branches not only across America and parts of northern Europe but nearly everywhere in the world.

And because of the rising power within the Akashi family, they had both Takara and Seijuro transferring to more private schools which started the distance between the children and their parents. Akashi Akito, their father, had chosen that Seijuro would succeed him which unintentionally forced a heavy weight on the young boy. Although Seijuro had no problems with succeeding his father, the time spent between him and Takara were beginning to lessen as time went on.

"Get the car ready." The redhead commanded calmly as he entered the bathroom.

"Yes sir." With that, the butler was sent off to prepare the car, leaving the boy alone.

After a quick shower, the young boy swiftly got dressed in his new school uniform and made his way downstairs, passing the main hall and entering the dining room to quickly finish his breakfast before heading out towards the main entrance where the car was ready for him. Okanatsu already had the door open as he stepped aside to allow his young master into the car before closing the door and making his way towards the drivers' seat.

"Find Takara" was all Seijuro said and the butler was quick to obey, nodding politely as he started to drive out of the Akashi household's courtyard.

Their 'house' or in better words, mansion was located out near the outskirts of Tokyo. It wasn't long before they reached the first streets of the suburbs, passing by small vacant streets and middle-tier houses. From time to time, passers by would look curiously as the rather fancy looking car would drive by, wondering why would such a car appear in a place like this.

Little did those residents know, the passenger of the car used to live around this neighborhood. The redhead stared out of the tinted windows at the many familiar houses and roads, a feeling of nostalgia rose up within him as he looked on the slow-changing suburbs that he used to call home. Soon enough, they wounded up driving by a familiar park with familiar street courts.

Right now, to anybody the courts would look empty. But in fact, there was someone playing. Narrowing his eyes, he could see her flowing waist-length light blue hair gently swaying as she dribbled a basketball, as if going against three opponents, the girl faked and feinted with swift movements. Her elegant moves made it looked as if she was dancing on the court before she finally reached the post and did a perfect lay up.

Stopping the car, Seijuro opened its car door and walked silently towards the basketball court, making sure that he didn't distract her attention as she continued to practice alone. But apparently, he was already spotted long before he reached the court as the girl stopped in her tracks and turned to meet his red eyes with her soft blue ones.

"Sei." She greeted softly.

"Restless?" He asked, walking up to her and patting her head. "It's the first day in middle school after all."

She nodded, bringing the basketball closer to her, hugging it nervously. He could tell what she was thinking just by those gestures. She was worried. Although in most cases nobody would notice her and even if they did, they would leave her be. Some of those people that notices her were from the same group of kids that bullied her during their days in the private elementary school. He had checked the list of freshmen and seniors, spotting many that used to take out their frustrations on her and had made extra preparations to ensure they wouldn't bother her again.

"Don't worry." He assured her. "They will not going to even utter a word to you."

She slowly nodded, affirming that she was ready to go to school though she was still nervously hugging the basketball in her arms. It was actually rare to see her out alone playing basketball. Especially when she was bringing out her personal one which was the same color as her hair. It was the last present she got from her real father before the accident and throughout the years, she had only played with it on special occasions. This, however, was an oddity but he didn't inquire about it.

Noticing his curious look, the girl murmured an explanation. "I was hoping Papa could give me strength through this..."

He nodded and walked back to the car with Takara following him closely, allowing her to enter the car first before he himself entered it and soon they were drove off to their new school. But instead of filling the air with excitement, the two could only be anxious. Wondering if their middle school days would be a repeat of the hell they had to go through in the last three years.

"Neh, Sei..." Takara spoke up, catching the redhead's attention. But immediately noticing the look in his eyes, she faltered and instead asked a rather optimistic question from the one she had in mind. "Do you think we could make any friends this year?"

Despite knowing that she evaded asking a question that would further drag down the mood inside the car, he answered with equal optimism. "Hopefully." Albiet a bit vague.

The rest of the trip to school was silent. Both of them looking out their respective window, looking past the scenery lazily. There wasn't much to be seen aside from walled suburb houses and other streets. The dull greyness of everything only made the day that much more gloomy for the both of them. But soon their eyes widened as they witnessed the sudden change of color.

Passing by the last block of suburban housing, their views were immediately drawn to the many pink cherry blossom trees that lined the streets. Shedding their petals and allowing the wind to gently carry them as they fell from the trees. The sight was breathtaking for the both of them, it had been so long since the last time they had seen something like this.

"_Kirie_..." Takara murmured in awe, causing the lips on Seijuro to twitch upwards.

The girl kept her face glued to the window as she watched how the dull greyness of the world suddenly filled with pinks of the cherry blossoms, the blues of the clear sky, the green of the plants and so many other colors. It was then that she felt her spirit lift a bit more and that this year may not be as bad as she dread it would be. Perhaps it could be better.

Soon, they stopped in front of the main entrance into the school. Marked with gold on an onyx plating beside the gate in elegant words of both English and Kanji was the school name; _Teiko Private Middle School_. This was their new school. This was where they would start anew and begin their teenage lives. This was also where they would be allowed to do what they liked to do most; Playing Basketball.

Without a second's hesitation, as soon as the butler Okanatsu opened the door, both of them rushed out and made their way towards the entrance. Many of the students around them looked their way with curiosity. It wasn't common for students to be driven to school and to have a chauffeur. But also among those students were those that glared in jealousy at the two that left the vehicle.

Noticing them, Takara moved closer to Seijuro, tugging lightly onto her 'brother' by the sleeve of his uniform.

"It'll be alright." He assured her as they entered the school, passing the main gates.

"Mm." She nodded and relaxed her grip on his sleeve. After being reassured, she focused her attention back to the scenery which she had back in the car. Her eyes watched the gently falling cherry blossoms all around, reaching out with a palm as one of them landed on her hand. A small miniscule smile formed on her lips and it soothed Seijuro to see her like this.

She blew the pink petal off her hands lightly, allowing it to rejoin the rest of the falling blossoms as they reached the bulletin board outside the School Hall. It was a separate building apart from the main school building which had the classrooms and teachers' offices and the sports facilities just behind it. Looking at the board, they both tried to pinpoint where their names were with rapt attention, hoping to be in the same class.

Luckily, they were as they spotted both of their names under the same class. They were in Class A, the best class of their form. It was expected from the both of them, since they were raised to be extremely intellectual. Soon, they noticed that they were towered by someone behind them, the first thing on their minds was the size of the shadow that was both on the ground and covering them. They turned to see a giant with violet hair munching on a bag of chips as his eyes lazily scanned the bulletin board, probably trying to find his name under one of the classes.

It was surprising to see someone so tall standing among the freshmen that gathered around. Many would believe the giant to be a student of a more senior form but he in fact was a freshman just like Takara and Seijuro. The giant snack eater seemed to have found his name among the many that were listed on the board as he turned and left, repeating the class "1-C" like a mantra.

"That's an interesting individual." Seijuro commented, smirking as he looked back at the board. "So he's from 1-C, eh?"

"Do you think he's interested in basket ball?" Takara asked. She too thought that the tall giant was interesting. With such a height at such a young age, it would be a waste if he didn't join or even played basketball.

"Probably. Although he did look like the type that slacks off." The redhead scoffed. "I hate people like that..."

Takara's eyes narrowed as she continued to study the retreating back of the violet giant. Noticing that despite how he acted earlier, the boy seemed fit. Putting her just a bit more effort into her focused observant eyes, she mentally jot down every specific physical attributes that she could see about the tall giant. Aside from his height, his limbs were also long. She estimated an arm spanned at six feet from the tip of the middle finger to the other.

Unfortunately, she couldn't figure out the numbers on the boy's strength, endurance, stamina and agility. Letting out a small frown of disappointment, she turned her attention towards the clock tower which situated on top of the main school building, it was only a mere second before the clock struck half past eight, signalling the start of the first school day with the chiming of its bells.

Everyone filed their way into the School Hall, many chatting with the new acquaintances they had made this morning or meeting up with friends from their previous schools. It was time for the opening ceremony and the welcoming of the freshmen. The two of them decided to wait until the majority of them were inside before they head over to it as well, not liking how crowded the place was at the moment.

"Neh, Sei..."

"Hm?" The redhead inquired as she continued to stare at the crowd entering the School Hall.

"...Nothing." The girl averted her eyes from the group and looked else where. But just in that miniscule moment, he saw the lonely expression in those blue orbs of hers.

He sighed. Although knowing that the girl had some troubles kept to herself, he wouldn't press about it at the moment. He finally walked towards the Hall entrance followed closely by the blue haired girl, entering its doors and searched the wide Hall for seats for the both of them. Being the last ones to enter, there was a really low chance of actually finding two seats which are together but apparent luck was on their side as Seijuro found two seats together right next to a tanned boy and a pinkette.

"Over there." He pointed towards the seats. "There's two seats."

"Mm." She nodded, following him as they went to sit down among the sea of freshmen.

As they approached the two seats, they glanced at the tanned boy. Dark navy blue hair with eyes just the same color, the freshman seemed pretty tall as well. Sitting on his lap was a basketball which Takara raised an eyebrow at. Was that even allowed into the Hall during the assembly? She shrugged it off before she noticed that one of the unoccupied seats was actually being occupied. Only it was a bag and not a person. Seeing that the tanned boy was beside the seat, she guessed it was his bag.

"Excuse me." she tried to make her presence known as the tanned boy continued to argue with the pink haired girl beside him. "Excuse me." She repeated a little louder, causing both of them to jump in surprise with the tanned boy having the most hilarious reaction out of the two. But still, Takara kept her expression blank.  
"May I sit there?" She asked, pointing to the seat where his bag was occupied.

"Oh, sorry." The dark blue haired boy apologized, setting the bag down under his own chair to allow her to sit down.

"Thank you." She nodded her thanks.

Seijuro on the other hand was glaring at the boy as he sat on the other side of Takara. But it wouldn't be a good idea to start something on the first day of school thus he relented and averted his glare to the front as the school's chairman stepped onto the stage to begin his speech at the podium. Everyone in the crowd turned silent as the chairman cleared his throat.

"_Good morning, our new batch of students that made it into this prestigious school this year..._" He greeted them, his eyes scanning the entire Hall with analyzing eyes with a cold look.

"His eyes...I don't like them." Takara whispered her discomfort when the chairman's eyes brush past her. Strangely, it wasn't only Seijuro who heard him as the tanned boy next to her turned to look at her.

"Huh? He's not that scary right?"

Both of them turned to look at the tanned boy. He noticed Takara's whisper...

"What's your name?" Seijuro suddenly asked as he narrowed his eyes at him.

"Aomine." He glanced towards Seijuro and shivered, repeating his name fully. "A-aomine Daiki."

"_Winning is the most important goal of Teiko! Whether it's in Academics or Sports, if you hesitate about being the victor then you'll never succeed." _The chairman's speech brought their attention back to him. "_Ever Victorious! That's this school's motto and it will also be yours for as long as you're still here. You will always climb on top and crush your opponent."_

The blue haired girl's hands clenched into fists on her lap as she listened. It was as if the chairman viewed everything else as nothing as he continued his speech. It was uncomfortable listening to him and she squirmed in her seat as she tried to shake off the uneasy feeling. Noticing her discomfort, the red head placed his hand on top of her clenched fist, immediately soothing her as her fists began to loosen.

Mouthing a 'thank you' to Seijuro, she once again listened as the chairman continued his speech. "_If you follow Teiko's way, you will succeed and will be the fittest to survive this age and world. I hope you'll do your best in this school and show flawless results." _He ended his speech and stepped down while the audience applauded, most were just following the flow while the more louder clapping were from the teachers.

It was about time for the freshmen's speech. The speech by the new students was supposed to be given out by the top of the form. As that student started the speech, the crowd was once again silent. The speech by the freshmen was not something special. All it had in its content was a thanks to the chairman and the school staff for being accepted into the school and then junk about how they would do their best to meet their expectations.

Without knowing, Takara drifted off to sleep during the speech. The red head just smiled at her sleeping face as the ceremony continued on. Even though he would usual wake her up to make sure she gets any information about the school, he allowed her to keep sleeping. _I'll just give her the information afterwards. I could tell she haven't slept last night, _he thought as he noticed the slightest of fatigue shown on her face.

"Say." The tanned boy on the other side of Takara whispered, catching the red head's attention. "What's your name? Since I've already introduced myself."

He stayed silent for a moment before finally answering. "Akashi Seijuro."

"Alright, hope we get along." He grinned at the red head but he merely nodded.

It wasn't long until the assembly was over and the crowd was soon washed over by a wave of growing chatter. While most people started to leave and go to their respective classrooms, Seijuro remained seated beside a sleeping Takara, deciding to wait until most of the people left. Just when Aomine was about to leave, he noticed that the two that he had just met were still sitting down.

"You guys aren't gonna leave?" He asked, pointing towards the exit.

"We'll wait a bit longer." Seijuro curtly answered, not bothering to look at the tanned boy who just shrugged as he was being pulled by the pink haired girl who was beside him. Soon they disappeared among the crowds of students leaving the Hall.

It wasn't long until most of the students left, meaning that they could leave now without worrying. He gently shook Takara by the shoulder, waking her up.

"Mm..?" she mumbled as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, yawning before facing the red head.

"The ceremony's over." He said, smiling when he saw the cute pout on her face.

"Why didn't you keep me awake?" She complained as she stretched.

"You didn't sleep last night, did you?" He asked, getting up from his seat.

"...I didn't manage to."

"Then that's why." He reached a hand for her which she gratefully took as they got up and left the Hall, walking silently towards their assigned class. The walk to it was peaceful and quiet to their liking. They never really liked being in big crowds. Most of the noisy chatter could still be heard in the distance near the main school building or inside of it. "It seems like this place is a bit livelier than our previous school."

"Mm." She simply answered.

Even though he knew the girl never talked much, Seijuro couldn't help but wonder why did it sound like she's more reluctant to speak than usual. He was about to ask when they accidentally bumped into someone, receiving a grunt from the person.

"Sorry." The person apologized warmly.

"No, it's fine. We weren't looking..." Seijuro trailed off when he noticed the man's eyes. He seemed to be a sports coach judging by the attire he wore. A black and white sports jacket and matching track pants accompanied by basket ball shoes. The outfit was completed with the whistle around his neck. But those eyes...It had a slight glint of warmth but at the same time seemed cold and calculating.

"Anyway, you should hurry to class." The coach warned, gesturing to the main school building with his head. "You wouldn't wanna be late on the first day."

The two freshmen nodded and hurried their way to class.

"He's the basketball coach." Takara mused as they rushed into the building. "He had an interesting look."

"Yeah..." He agreed, remembering the coach's look but shaking it out of his head as they turned towards the corridor filled with classrooms. "Come on, we're late."

* * *

**Author's Note: First KnB Fanfic. Reviews would be appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Teiko's Princess**

**Second Quarter: Representing the Freshmen, we challenge you!**

While walking down the corridor of the school, they looked through the classrooms and silently watched the other students mingled amongst each other on their first day in school. Some of them were from their old elementary school and they reminded themselves to stay away from them to avoid any troubles. It wasn't long until they reached their class at the end of the hall, sliding the class door open as the chatter inside became more prominent. The barrier which was the door being open allowed the noisy chatter to be echoed out into the hallway.

Ignoring the loudness of their fellow classmates, they scanned the seats for a place to sit since there was no seating order established at the moment. The only few empty seats were far apart from each other to their dismay. Seijuro frowned before looking over to Takara, concern could be seen in his eyes. But seeing her giving him a nod with the hidden message that she would be okay, earning the tiniest of smiles from the red head.

He returned the nod and watched as she left his side to find her own desk, picking the one closest to the class windows since she never had the chance to sit near them at all back in elementary. He could see the refreshed look in her eyes as she sat and looked out the window, watching the slow drifting clouds in the sky and the gently waving shimmering pinks of the cherry blossoms in the courtyard. Now he should also find a seat to sit down and began searching for one, noticing the seat beside a green haired boy near the front of the class.

The green boy seemed to glare as he read the small novel he held in his left hand with a serious aura around him. It would seemed like the best idea to sit beside him, since the other classmates seemed too noisy to his liking. Walking up to him, he knocked on the empty desk beside the green haired boy, catching his attention. "Hm?"

"Is this seat taken?" Seijuro curtly asked, noticing the wariness the green haired boy's eyes betrayed. He must've been perceptive or an 'introvert' as some might say.

"No, it's not." He answered.

With a nod, the red head sat down and had his schoolbag hung on the side of the desk. He looked back at the green haired boy, seeing that he was back to reading the novel, piquing his curiosity. It was not actually a novel but a book of poems. Although he usually wouldn't bother with it, the red head asked, "You like to read that?"

The boy paused in his reading for a few seconds. Knowing the look in the green head's eyes, he knew that he was thinking whether the red head's question was worth answering or not. But Seijuro's eyes seemed to sent a chill down his spine as if that there were consequences if he didn't answer. Reluctantly, he closed the book and examined its cover even though he had seen it many times before.

"No, I don't. It's the lucky item of the day." He sighed, awaiting for the usual confused 'what' from the red head just like everyone else who had asked him.

"Oha-Asa, is it?"

That caught the green haired boy in complete surprise. His eyes widening only a small fraction but he immediately hid his surprise, earning a smirk from the red head. "Y-yes." He nervously adjusted his black framed glasses. _This classmate of mine... _His thoughts trailed off.

"Akashi Seijuro." The red head introduced himself, once again surprising him. Noticing the green head's reaction, he helpfully explained, "You had a look that said you wanted to know who I am."

Again, the green haired boy pushed his glasses up except this time it he did it unconsciously. Seijuro could see that he was calculating on how to respond showing that the boy beside him was much more intelligent than the people he and Takara usually meets. He wondered how well would he fair if they played Shogi together.

"Midorima Shintarou." He finally answered, introducing himself.

The redhead merely nodded at that but he stopped the conversation right there as he noticed a sight movement near the door to the classroom from the corner of his eye. And as expected the teacher slid opened the door, causing the whole classroom to silence themselves. The teacher looked laid-back and cheery as he walked to the teacher's desk and set everything in his arms down before turning to the black board and writing down his name with a chalk.

"Good morning class, I will be your homeroom teacher this year." He said, tapping the black board with the chalk and smiling. Bando Imutoki. "As the teacher of this class, I would like to have you all introduce yourselves. Let's start with the first row." He pointed to the student sitting closest to the windows in the front. "What's your name?"

The student -A boy- stood up and introduced himself. His nervousness was painfully obvious with his voice cracking from time to time. After his introduction, the boy sat back down and the next classmate stood up and introduced herself as well in a more composed manner. The redhead didn't bother to pay attention to his classmate's introductions as he looked over towards the teal haired girl that sat near the window just a row behind him.

She had the same passive look as usual. Her blank eyes stared at each student as they introduced themselves, but he could tell that the girl was nervous. Catching his stare at her, Takara returned it with her own. A hidden message was sent between them and he nodded.

_She'll be fine. I just know it._

Soon, it was the red head's turn as he stood up after the previous classmate had introduced himself. His took a glance at everyone around him as he spoke. "Akashi Seijuro. I hope we get along."

With that, he sat back down. Bando sensei was about to ask if he had anything more to add but one look from the red head erased any thought of that as he stuttered while asking for the next student to introduce himself. Just like Seijuro, Midorima didn't bother adding any other details about him as he briefly mentioned his own name and similar greetings before sitting back down.

It wasn't long until a student actually barely caught the red head's attention as she stood up and introduced herself with confidence. It was also then that he noticed the girl was the one who was arguing most of the time with the tanned boy known as Aomine Daiki.

"I'm Momoi Satsuki! I'll be looking forward to having classes with you this year! I'm also interested in joining the school's basket ball club as the manager. Hope we get along!" She finished it with a bow, actually earning some applause much to his amusement. He also noted that she was quite developed for her age as well but he didn't have any interest in any girls at the moment.

After Momoi Satsuki's introduction, it seemed like it boosted the rest of the students' confidence, especially the boys as they seemed to nearly shout out their introductions. He counted as it was soon Takara's introduction, two more at it would be the teal head's turn to introduce herself. One more...And then he heard her stand up from her seat, ready to introduce herself when...

"So that's everyone?" The teacher asked for confirmation, looking around as everyone murmured mixed answers.

"Ano..." Takara spoke up, earning everyone's attention. The ones sitting closest to her jumped when she spoke up, not even noticing that she was right there the entire time. Keeping up her composure, she introduced herself in a monotone voice. "I'm Kuroko Takara. I hope we get along."

To most people, they would think this girl was unapproachable with that tone of hers, even her face lacked any expression. But a few would notice the nervousness evident in her eyes and the slight twitching of her fingers which was usually so small that nobody would notice. It was the first time that she was not sitting beside Seijuro after all. And the red wondered if it was still possible to be able to sit beside her so he could look after the petite teal head.

"A-alright! Nice to meet you too, Kuroko-san!" The teacher smiled after her introduction and looked through his stack of stuff that he piled on the desk, pulling out a piece of paper. "Anyway! As required by the school, each class will have seat rotations every semester! So it's time to start our first rotation of the year!"

This announcement gained many groans and whining from the class save for a few of them. For Seijuro, it was a chance he could not miss, same goes with Takara as her blue eyes seemed to lit up at that, although she'd regret not being able to sit by the window. The green haired boy merely adjusted his glasses as he continued reading while the pink haired girl was getting uncomfortable with the looks shot at her by the boys sitting around her.

"Anyway! Let's all move to the front now!" The teacher motioned for them to come to where he was as he looked over a sheet of paper which probably had their seating plan. "Starting from the first row! Left to right...Yamamoto, Fukishiki, Ando, Inoue, Denba, Hanasatsu..."

The students named moved to sit in their new seats as the teacher continued to drone out names.

"Momoi..." The teacher pointed exactly in the middle of the classroom, earning a rather flustered look from the pinkette.

"Uwah~ Sensei! It's like you're planting me as the center of attention!" She whined as she went to sit down at the desk assigned to her, earning a few laughs from her fellow classmates.

"Kuroko..." The teacher continued, pointing to the seat next to Momoi, just only one column away from the window. Despite that, her eyes lit up as she nodded and sat next to the pink haired girl.

Once she sat down, the pinkette immediately recognized the teal head. "Hey! You're from the opening ceremony!"

Takara turned and nodded with a simple answer "yes." before turning her attention back to the front, earning a sweat drop from her.

_Uwah...She doesn't seem like the type I'd get along with... _The pinkette thought as she kept studying the girl next to her.

"Akashi..." The red head was assigned two rows behind and to the far left, away from the teal head. Realizing that Seijuro would be sitting so far away from her, she pouted rather childishly despite assuring the red head that she would be fine sitting apart. The pinkette noticed that pout and wondered what the two's relationship were.

_On a side note she's pretty cute when she shows an expression...Maybe I'll get along with her! _"Neh, Kuroko-san!" She tried to start a conversation with the silent teal head again. "What are your interests?"

Said teal head cocked her head, blinking before she responded. "Basketball."

"Really?" The pinkette lit up as she leaned closer with a happy smile. _We both love basketball! _"Are you going to be a manager too?"

"No. I'm going to play." She answered bluntly.

"E-ehh~?!" Momoi gaped, surprised at the bluenette's answer. "But you can't!"

She blinked in confusion although it didn't show on her face, Takara paused before she inquired, "Why?"

Once again, the pink haired girl sweat dropped. _She...Didn't know? _"It's a boys only basketball team."

The teal head merely turned herself back to the front with a stubborn answer. "I'll still play."

"How?" Momoi asked bewildered.

She didn't answer her nor did she turn to face her again. The pinkette sighed again, at the point of giving up trying to get to know the teal haired girl beside her. But then she noticed the girl's squirming slightly in her seat and her hands tucked under the desk, playing with the thumbs nervously. She had to try and suppress a giggle at that.

_She's just nervous and shy. Cute! _"Neh, Taka-chan!"

The teal haired girl snapped her head towards her, eyes slightly wider. "...Taka-chan?"

"Mm!" The pink haired girl nodded enthusiastically, a grin on her face. "Wanna go sign up for the basketball club?"

The teal haired girl contemplated for bit before slowly nodding, indicating a yes as an answer and getting a surprise attack hug from the pinkette as she cheered. The pinkette was being extremely friendly with her and she didn't know why, once again awkwardly adjusting her seating position since she needs a way to shake off her nervousness. Finally though, the teal head asked the girl beside her the question that she's been pondering since the start of the conversation after being assigned to their seats.

"Momoi-san..."

"Satsuki! Call me Satsuki! Nickname's a bonus!"

"Uu...S-Satsuki...Chan?" She stuttered for once, although her face betrayed no emotions, her voice did.

"Yes?" The pinkette released her hold onto the smaller girl as she waited for the question this new friend of hers was about to ask.

"Why do you wish to be friends with me?"

That was a question that caught the pink haired girl by surprise. She didn't really exactly know though. Despite that she find the smaller girl cute and she just adores cute things, that wasn't the only reason she wanted to befriend the teal head. Interests aside, there was just this urge to do so and yet she had no idea why. But then she noticed a flash of worry and sadness as if expecting a complete lie from her, causing her to just blurt out whatever was in her mind.

"Is it alright if I just want to?" She immediately clamped her mouth shut with her hands. That sounded quite rude with the tone she said it and how abrupt she suddenly blurted that out.

But instead of seeing a frown from the teal head, she thought she saw a small smile forming on the smaller girl's lip for just a fraction of a second before it was reverted back into the blank mask that she always wore. It would seem like the teal head was satisfied with the answer and appreciated the honesty in the pinkette's answer when she looked at her with those blue eyes of her as if she whispered a 'thank you' through them.

"Another question."

"Hai?"

The teal head cocked her head curiously as she faced the pink haired girl again. "Why were you overly affectionate when I agreed to go sign up together for the basketball club?"

"Um...Because I like cute things?"

Takara eyed her in a confused manner. "So to Satsuki-chan, I'm cute?"

"Mhm." Satsuki answered, once again all over the teal head, hugging her as if she's a plush doll. "Hope we get along~" The teal haired girl has a feeling that she'd be getting a lot of this from now on from this new friend of hers but she didn't mind it. A smile slipped onto her face under the pinkette's notice.

At the back, coincidentally, Seijuro and Midorima was once again sitting beside each other. The red head's been keeping an eye on Takara for a while now and for once, he noticed the teal head relaxing herself after just meeting someone. Unknowingly, he smiled at that. He was glad that the teal haired girl managed to make a friend this year.

"You're quite fond of that girl aren't you?"

He turned to see Midorima placing his book down as he looked between the two girls in the middle of class and the red head sitting beside him. Seijuro leaned back on his chair as he turned back to watch Takara as the pinkette seemed to have no intentions of stopping her teasing on the smaller girl, not bothering to answer the green haired boy.

"Alright, class settle down!" The teacher clapped his hands to get everyone's attention after assigning the seats. "Since it's the first day, it's a half day and it's almost time for dismissal. The clubs will be out and about as soon as the bell rings and one of Teiko's requirements is that you should be in at least one club. So anyway, hope you'll find a club you would like to join today!" As soon as he finished, the school bell chimed outside, signalling the end of the day. "Alright! Class dismissed!"

Everyone seemed to burst out the doors as soon as the bell rang save for a few who lingered in the class a bit longer.

Getting up from her seat, Takara made her way to the red head at the back, followed by a curious pinkette. "Sei."

The red head nodded, "Let's go."

Standing up, the two left the classroom followed by the pinkette who introduced herself to the rather scary looking red head, stopping outside in the hall when the pink haired girl asked to wait for a bit as she ran down the hall to pick up her friend, bringing back an annoyed tanned boy which they had met earlier named Aomine Daiki.

"Eh? Yo." Aomine greeted rather awkwardly while being dragged by the arm.

"Hello, Aomine-kun." Takara returned the greeting while Seijuro nodded. "I'm guessing you're also joining the basket ball club?"

The tanned boy nodded, his eyes swapping between the small bluenette and the red head in front of him. "Yeah, you too?"

They nodded, earning a bewildered expression. He was about to comment about their height but the words were caught in his throat when he noticed a pair of glaring red eyes coming from the red head and gulped them back down. Shaking his head, he muttered 'Whatever' and walked past them, earning a discontent grunt from the pinkette as she tried to catch up to him and giving the tanned boy a scolding while both Takara and Seijuro followed.

"Interesting pair, neh?" Takara mused, her lips quirked a bit. The red head merely continued staring at the back of the tanned navy blue haired boy in front.

"Hm."

"What is it?" The teal haired girl inquired, leaning a bit forward to see the extremely tiny hint of curiosity in those eyes of his.

"Aomine Daiki..." The red head mused, studying the tanned boy in front of them. "He has potential."

Following his gaze, the teal head also examined the tanned boy as said boy continued to try in vain to ignore the pinkette's scolding. Now that he had taken off the sweater which he was previously wearing during the ceremony, she could easily notice his physique slightly and began estimating the tanned boy's physical attributes and potential. With her observant and analytic eyes, she was finished with her analysis on the boy within seconds and halted in her pace.

Noticing for the first time that Takara was frozen in spot, the red head turned in concern towards her. "What is it?"

"Just having potential is an understatement." She simply answered, her eyes slightly wider than before. "His stats were much higher than what you see on the outside."

That caught him. Seijuro immediately turned back towards the back of the tanned boy, once again examining him. Although Takara's analyzing is much better than Seijuro's, he could still barely see what the teal head meant and smirked. This would be an interesting club if they all join in. And just maybe... He turned to look at the girl beside him, eyes softening at the sight of her curiously humming in thought at their future fellow club member's athletic stats.

Not long later, they made it down the stairs from the first floor and into the school's lobby before exiting the building entirely. Once again, the teal head was captured by the beautiful scene of pink cherry blossoms gently falling and the calm yet colorful atmosphere. There still students around but it was undoubtedly less noisy. Due to most of the clubs preferring to begin their recruitment tomorrow, the school grounds were calmer than most others.

The teal haired girl extended her hands in front of her just a little, allowing tiny petals to fall gently into her palms as she admired them. It was also coincidentally the same time the tanned boy decided to check the back of him to see if the pair he and Satsuki just met were still following them, suddenly finding himself staring at the petite bluenette who was too busy admiring the cherry blossoms to notice that Aomine was staring at her.

"Dai-chan?" The pinkette asked, confused before following his gaze to see the teal haired girl watching the pink trees in wonder. Cute. But then a mischievous grin was plastered on her face as she thought up a new way to tease her childhood friend. "Uu~ Looks like someone fell in love!"

"Wha-what?! No way!" The tanned boy beside her finally snapped out of his staring and averted his eyes away with a small hint of red on his cheeks. "Not my type." He denied.

"Hm...You sure stared pretty long considering she's not your type..." The pink haired girl was not convinced.

"I-I wasn't staring at her. Just something else!" He continued to avoid her gaze as he frantically tried to force himself from getting more flustered. "Be-besides, I like girls with...Bigger boobs."

"Pervert."

The sudden soft voice of a certain teal head from behind them made the tanned boy yelp and jump a bit in surprise. He turned around to see that both Takara and Seijuro had caught up to them with a still-intact pink cherry blossom tucked comfortably behind the petite girl's ear, earning a squeal from the pinkette while she snuggled the smaller girl.

"Th-th-You heard it wrong!" The tanned boy tried once again to deny his previous claims which he said with confidence just a moment ago. "A-And what's with the flower in your hair?" But those blue eyes of hers continued to bore into him with suspicion without answering.

"Daiki." The red head's call of his first name caught his attention. Despite having only met just today, Seijuro called him on a first name basis which was rather strange. But the tanned boy couldn't protest, especially after noticing the glare coming from the smaller boy. "I suggest we keep moving."

Nodding, the four of them continued their way towards the sports facilities. Approaching the closest of the four gyms in Teiko, the squeaking of sneakers and balls dribbling reached them as they got closer to one of the larger of the four gyms, followed by murmurings and chatting right outside as well. Apparently, most of the students had gathered at the gym, spectating what seemed to be a mock match.

"They're already practicing?" The tanned boy tip toed, attempting to get a better look of what was going on. "Wait, I thought I just saw one of my classmates on one of the teams."

"It's the try outs probably." Seijuro answered, moving into the crowd and forcing his way through, followed tightly by Takara and then Satsuki and Aomine.

After a bit of struggling, the four of them finally broke through the crowd and was at the front of them, spectating the entire match. Like Seijuro had said, it was a try out match. The candidates versing the seniors which were in the basketball club. It was actually a close game, with the seniors merely leading by three points, Freshmen at 29 and the Basketball Club at 32.

"The freshmen this year are pretty good!"

"Or is it just that the seniors are not that good?"

Questions started spreading around in the crowd, thickening the already tense atmosphere on the court as the seniors began to act differently. Smirks plastered their faces as they spoke something amongst each other before getting into position, it was their ball. And something didn't sit right to the four as they continued to observe the game.

It seemed normal so far. A sudden isolation by the seniors happened after they started. But instead of pull any drives or any good plays, the senior who had the ball charged at the freshman, knocking him down with a smirk and continued to do a simple lay up. That was supposed to be a foul, but the referee in charged didn't do anything about it. His face showed sympathy but when he looked at the seniors on court, fear was shown in his eyes and stayed silent.

"That was a foul!" Aomine hissed as he clenched his fists. The others nodded in agreement and murmurs started spreading around among the throngs of students. But despite all of that, the seniors didn't even seem to care and continued with their foul plays, knocking down the freshmen players, elbowing them during screens, blocks or passing. They would even go as far as stepping on their feet to immobilize them.

It wasn't long until the freshmen snapped, with most of them too injured to even stand. "Hey! Start playing like a real player!"

"Oh? but we are playing." The senior smirked taking a step closer to the remaining standing freshman with a threatening look. "Do you have a problem? _Newbie?_"

It was then that Seijuro noticed the swaying strands of light blue hair past him that he realized what was going to happen next. He sighed, not sure whether to accompany her or stay silent as he watched her walk over to the players on the court. Although he seemed relaxed in his stance, the red head was ready to jump in to protect his adoptive sister if things get rather violent, he merely hoped that the senior wouldn't make such a foolish decision as his eyes glinted dangerously.

The senior was about to grab the freshman by the collar when his hand was slapped away, earning a surprised look from everyone save for the red head. "Huh? What the...Who did that?!"

"Me." Was the soft yet chilling voice from in front of him, making him jump back with a yelp.

His eyes were met with cold dangerous light blue orbs that seemed to chill him to the core before noticing that the owner of those eyes was just a freshman girl who's height was slightly above a typical elementary student. Smirking, he towered over the petite younger girl and tried again to look threatening but to no avail as those cold blue eyes continued to stare at him void of any other emotions than anger.

"What's with this girl?" The senior's voice cracked a bit.

"What you were playing was not basketball." She claimed coldly, earning a raised brow from the senior.

"Eh? You got a problem with how we play, girly?"

"Yes." She flatly answered. "In fact, your plays are so lowly that even the lowest of scum would be insulted by how you played."

That earned a new expression from the senior as his face contorted into a scowl before grabbing the girl by her uniform's collar. "Why you little-"

He was stopped from picking the girl up as he felt a weight landing on his shoulder. Turning around, he was met with two new pairs of eyes. One pair was red with fury and the other was a calm pair of sapphires but they glinted dangerously. The owner of the pair of dark blue eyes squeezed his shoulder roughly. "Let her go."

Feeling that if he didn't obey, he might go through hell, the senior let the petite girl go as the red head rushed to her side and asked in concern. "Are you okay, Takara?"

"I'm fine Sei." She answered, a small smile was flashed on her face for a fraction of a second before it disappeared like it never existed. "Thank you."

"How about we settle this with a game?" Aomine suggested with a light hearted tone. But listened to closely, you could hear a slight hint of anger in it. "If we win, not only do we get to join and settle this but you're also gonna have to quit playing like that."

"Huh? And you think you could win?" The senior scoffed before violently shrugging the tanned boy's arm off. "As if."

"We will." It was red head who spoke this time, surveying the injured fellow freshmen who were being carried off the court by their friends or classmates. "Representing the freshmen, we'll win against you with absolute certainty." He calmly announced loud enough for everyone in the gym to hear.

Suddenly the seniors all burst out laughing followed by murmurs among the crowds. "What?! You'll win with 'absolute certainty?! Don't joke around, kid!"

"Sei..." Takara tugged onto the red head's sleeve as he watched a calculating smirk spread across his features.

"It's not a joke." From amongst the crowd walked out a familiar green haired boy as he adjusted his glasses and stood behind his fellow freshmen who challenged them, the book of poems still in his left hand. "You will lose."

"I was expecting you to come out sooner or later, Shintarou." The red head grinned, earning a suspicious look from Midorima as he again fiddled with the glasses on his nose.

"It was predicted that I, a Cancer would be involved in something today involving a Sagittarius. I believe this was what was foretold..." The green head muttered although unsure about it as he was pressured by those red eyes coming from Seijuro.

"I see. Your instinct was indeed correct." The red head merely answered, earning a confused look from the green haired boy.

"Heh, you only got three players now, what're you gonna do?" The senior smirked arrogantly.

"Four." The teal haired girl corrected, once again catching the senior's attention. "I'll be playing as well."

"What?! _You_?! Hah! Don't make me laugh!" The senior forced a laugh. He wasn't the only one who didn't believe what she said. Two of them were her fellow freshmen on the court while the red head merely allowed a knowing smile creep upon his features.

* * *

Back in the crowd, the pinkette who decided to stay among the crowds almost cringed when her new petite friend had stepped up in front of the senior and almost had herself beaten up but her jaws dropped when she heard her announce that she would also be playing. Knowing that her childhood friend wouldn't back down from this and the mysterious red head who accompanied the teal haired girl would always be involved with whatever the former would do, she could only sit by the sidelines and watch as everything unfolds...

"Good luck..." Her whisper was lost amongst the hushed whispers and muttering in the crowd.

_Wait a minute!_

An idea popped into her head as she quickly maneuvered for her bag to her side, digging into its content to pull out a notebook and a pen as she began surveying the seniors on court and jotting down notes. She may not be able to play but she knew that throughout her childhood, she had been the observer on the courts for as long as she remembered and that observation may help her friends.

She noted that compared to his childhood friend, the seniors were merely average at best and smiled with a hint of sympathy towards them. But what was surprising was that the two other male freshmen on court had exceptional stats despite their figure with the red head being the most abnormal. And then there's Taka-chan... She was mysterious as ever...She couldn't even analyze the petite girl and her stats seemed near invisible. Just what on earth was she?

Shaking her head, she refocused on the seniors and began to once again jot down notes and possible attributes that would be used by them. She may not be completely accurate but it was always a good thing to stay on the safe side and assume they could perform those possibilities.

"I'll need to call them over later." The pinkette sighed as she finished her data-collecting, relaxing her shoulders for the time being.

* * *

"Tch. Fine, but you're still missing one player." The senior smirked, bouncing the ball twice before twirling it on his finger.

As if on cue, the crowd's murmuring grew a bit louder as the crowd made way for a violet haired giant. In his arms were an assortment of random junk food and snacks, mainly sweets as he lazily walked towards the court, chewing onto what seems to be a bar of chocolate. His eyes blankly surveyed his surroundings with a literal question mark above his head in confusion.

"Is this the basketball club?" The giant asked, confused about the whole crowd surrounding the court.

The red head smirked. It was the same freshman that they saw before the opening ceremony. Despite what his first impressions of the giant purple haired boy was, he would still be a good addition to the team if not great. He would need to see. Cutting off what the senior was about to say to the giant, he called out first and gained the giant's attention.

"It's the try out match." He answered the giant. "Come play against the seniors if you will."

The giant's eyes hardened as if he was turned into a completely new person as he stopped munching on his snack and walked up to the the smaller red head. They stared at each other for a minute before the giant seemed to stiffen and then nodded. "Okay..."

"We have five now." Aomine smirked as he looked at the senior whose mood seemed to dropped tenfold from earlier after seeing the giant entering the game.

"Whatever." The senior finally gave in, turning around and leaving them shouting back to them. "The game starts in five minutes! You newbies better prepare yourselves because you'll all be trampled!"

The freshmen all gathered into a circle and was about to discuss on what roles each would take and how to deal with the seniors' foul play when Takara noticed the pinkette jogging towards them.

"Satsuki-chan?" The teal head questioned as she looked at her new friend in confusion.

"Sorry! I just have some information to give you! I was analyzing them earlier." Satsuki explained, holding a notebook in front of them with pages marked with stats and bullet pointed information and predictions. "I was thinking that this might help you guys!"

"Nice going, Satsuki." The tanned boy grinned then took a look at the notes that were jotted down and frowned. "Err...I don't get this..."

But his eyes didn't linger on the notes for long as a petite hand got hold of the notebook and studied the information written on its pages. It was indeed impressive, perhaps even better written than the teal head's notes. Seijuro beside her was also scanning the list of stats that were jotted down with some pretty strange doodles of what he guessed were sketched out portraits of the five seniors they would be playing.

Noticing them, Aomine struggled from bursting out a laugh from the horrible illustrations of the senior players, earning a punch and a pout from the pink haired artist.

"Hm." The red head hummed as he read the last bits of information before nodding at the girl beside him who returned it, indicating that they had both finished. "Well, first we should introduce ourselves. Since we're going to play together and will be joining the basketball club as well."

Once again, they each reintroduced themselves starting with Aomine as he gave a friendly grin then came Midorima followed by obvious questions coming from the rest of the group save for Seijuro and Takara. The pinkette also introduced herself and started calling out nicknames much to everyone's chagrin and lastly the giant who came to join them earlier, introducing himself as Murasakibara Atsushi.

Compared to the rest of the group, in contrast to his intimidating height and build, the giant was actually quite childish as he continued munching on the snacks he had brought with him as the meeting continued on.

"Anyway, on the first page you mention this..." The red head eyed the doodle with a mixed look. All he knew it had spiky hair and two dots as eyes on a circle which was probably the head of the figure. "..This player..." He looked over towards the seniors who were on the other side of the court, spotting one of them with a similar hairstyle with his Teiko basketball jersey number '8' and the name 'Fugumichi' on the back. "He's the team's ace, according to the notes."

The pinkette nodded. "Nn. He seemed to rely on getting scores close up though."

"Then I guess we could just keep him out then? Sounds quite easy." Aomine shrugged, earning a small whack to his head by the pink haired girl. "Ite! Oi, Satsuki! What was that for?!"

"Be serious, baka!" The pinkette scolded, pressing a finger against his forehead as she glared him down.

"..." Aomine stayed silent after that, moving the planning along.

"I will let Daiki mark him then. Since he said it would be easy." The red head assigned the tanned boy, earning a smirk from all the teammates except said boy who frowned.

"I-I was just kidding-"

"No, you can handle him." Seijuro cut him off with a hint of confidence, turning to eye the tanned boy. "I believe in your skills, Daiki. Use them."

Seeing the genuine look in the red head's intimidating eyes, the tanned boy merely stayed silent and nodded. They moved on to each of the other seniors, trying to cram as much and plan as much within the five minutes that was slowly ticking away. Soon, it was Aomine marking the spiked boy, Midorima marking the senior with a buzzcut, Seijuro marking their point guard while Takara insisted on personally marking the senior they were all fighting with earlier and the addition of the last player who had a delinquent look with his dark hair covering his eyes.

"Hm?" Seijuro noticed the teal head's troubled look. "What is it, Takara?"

"...I think instead of having me as the shooting guard, Midorima-kun would fair better." She suggested, looking up at the green haired boy before switching her attention to Aomine. "Aomine-kun will be our Power Forward."

"Switching positions around? Was there a weakness from our previous positioning?" The red head inquired, although he knew that Takara would usually be right. It was always like that. He makes the initial plans and then Takara would fill in the holes that were skimmed over by him, plotting out a perfect plan.

"It's a hunch." She stated in which Seijuro picked up immediately, nodding in response.

"Then let's go with the changes." The red concluded, eyeing each individual who were now a part of their team. "Are there any questions?"

"I'm good." The tanned boy grinned, his fingers were itching to get the ball.

"It seemed to be a sound plan." Midorima agreed, nodding in confirmation.

"Whatever you say~" Responded the violet haired giant, Murasakibara.

The red turned to the petite girl beside him, wondering if Takara still has anything to add in which the teal head shook her head and indicating that there's nothing else needed to be added. He turned back to the group and nodded, signaling that the strategy discussion was over and they broke up and went to their positions, readying for whatever was about to come their way.

The opposing team was also just finishing up, though there seemed to be no plans up their sleeves as they noticed that all the seniors did was lazing around near their bench. They were looking down on them, expecting that their group would still be the victor. Although the teal haired girl showed no expressions, her eyes sent chills down anybody's spines if they made contact with them.

The game was about to start. With both teams in position, the freshmen team chose their giant to jump at the tip off while the seniors chose their tallest player; the power forward with a buzzcut. Although Murasakibara was at least two inches taller, the opponent didn't seemed to be scared. Instead, he smirked as his eyes glinted dangerously before the referee tossed the ball.

The ball was tossed towards the enemy side slightly. As expected. All the seniors grinned as they began to move forward believing that it tipped in their favor but their chances were immediately crushed when the purple haired giant managed to snatch the ball before their power forward could, earning shocked looks from the audience and the seniors.

Once he had the ball, the giant passed it to his tanned teammate with a single powerful sling of his toned arms.

"Nice one, Murasakibara!" Aomine shouted as he wasted no time to dash across the court at full speed but was immediately halted by the spike head senior he was up against.

"You ain't passing, _freshmen_!" The senior they recognized as 'Fugumichi' scowled as he blocked the tanned boy's path, arms spread out and ready to steal the ball when it was possible.

The tanned boy merely grinned as he started moving, leaning to the right as he bounced the ball once. He took a step- and immediately switched direction, changing his footing to the left and making a fake. The senior fell for it as he watched in shock while the tanned freshman continued down the court, reaching the goal and immediately jumped with all his power, reaching the basketball rim.

He slammed it into the basket, the supports of the hoop whined and creaked as it felt an unpleasant weight added to its hoop.

"He did a dunk!"

"No way!"

The crowd cheered as the first points were scored by the freshmen, turning the flow in their favor. The freshmen team briefly expressed their celebration in their own ways before they got back into the game, immediately taking up defense positions around their side of the court. It was the seniors' turn to go on the offense and from the looks of it, that first goal merely ticked them off up a notch as they glared dangerously at the opposing team.

"Be careful." The red head warned his team as his stance tensed up, eying their opponents warily.

Their Center was given the ball as he slowly moved forward in the middle of the court, scanning for an opening and for his teammates' positions. Suddenly, his lips quirked up in a smirk as he began to pick up speed, jogging lightly. Both Aomine and Midorima, closest to the player began to move only to be stopped from intercepting the enemy Center.

"Nope." Came the sly whisper of the point guard as he stepped onto Midorima's foot. "You're not going anywhere." He grinned at the freshman he marked, attempting to provoke the green haired boy.

"Tch." Midorima merely clicked his tongue.

Aomine on the other hand was 'accidentally' elbowed in the ribs as his marker moved in to block his path, earning a growl from the tanned boy.

The enemy Center casually jogged, noticing that the red haired freshman nearby merely let him past. Maybe that twerp had given up. The thought made his grin even wider as he approached the goal. The giant was being marked by his other two teammates which meant that he couldn't do anything about it. He prepared his stance, thinking about doing a simple shot near the goal.

He took aim...

_*Smack!*_

The ball was suddenly slapped out of his hand, causing him to freeze in spot to process what just happened. He turned around and noticed a certain teal haired girl was in possession of the ball as she sped her way down the court like a blur. Impossible! How did he not notice her?! As soon as he came back to his senses, he desperately attempted to catch up with the girl but it was too late as she had already made it under their goal post before he even took his tenth step.

She gracefully did a lay up and the ball slipped into the basket flawlessly without even a single touch to the rim. She turned to look at the Center who had his mouth agape in which she returned with a blank look except her eyes seemed to express a laugh at him. He growled and immediately ran back to his team's half of the court, attempting to at least crash into the teal haired girl with his right shoulder but failed miserably.

The girl dodged him and subtly had her foot placed in front of where he was about to step, when he missed his chance to 'accidentally' crash into her he also tripped a bit, nearly losing his balance in the process. A sly smile flashed onto the petite girl's face for merely a second before it disappeared and her attention went back into the game.

"That brat!" The Center growled, turning to glare at the teal head's back. "She'll pay for that..."

"Musaki!" At the call of his name, the Center turned around to see his captain nod. He grinned. Perfect.

Once again, the seniors had the ball. They moved up again and this time, the ball was in their captain's possession as he moved to one side of the court, away from the teal haired girl.

Takara noticed the weird behavior and immediately took action. She had noticed the glance the enemy captain gave to the Center who was on the opposite side of the court and she swiftly intercepted him, halting him.

"You better run, girly..." The enemy Center grinned, catching the teal head's attention. "...Or you'll get hurt."

She shivered, something wasn't right... She noticed that the Center did nothing else but standing at ready in front of her. No foul plays were being made as he merely smugly grinned at her. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at him, keeping a small distance from him as she continued to pay rapt attention towards her surroundings.

"I warned ya..."

His voice once again distracted her as she turned to look back at him, noticing that his eyes were not on her but behind her.

"Takara! Look out!"

Seijuro's urgent warning snapped her out as she abruptly turned to see what was happening when she watched as an orange blur got closer each fraction of a second towards her face.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Thank you those who reviewed, favorited or followed. Hope you enjoy this update! (And hopefully it's not terrible...)  
**

**Also looking for a beta reader for this. If there's anyone willing to, send a pm!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Teiko's Princess**

**Third Quarter: Friends.**

"Takara! Look out!"

She whipped around in reaction to Seijuro's shout, witnessing an orange blur head straight at her. Time seemed to slow down for her as her blue eyes widened in shock. She couldn't make it! She couldn't move fast enough to block it! Her left hand closest to her face moved on instinct, trying as hard as it could to reach the space between her face and the ball but then...

_*Thump!*_

_Eh?! _She couldn't process what happened as the next thing she noticed was that she was on her back with a huge weight on top of her. The ball was caught by the senior she was marking and was making his way down the court before she realized what happened. The weight on top of her lifted, catching her attention as she noticed the familiar dark blue short hair of the one who knocked her down and the tanned skin.

Once he got up with both hands supporting his body over her, light blue eyes met with his sapphire navy ones. Their faces were a few inches apart as they stayed in that position for merely a few seconds.

"Y-you okay?" The tanned boy asked, stuttering as heat began to wash over his face in embarrassment, getting himself off of her.

"Nn." She answered hesitantly as she too slowly got up, wincing and noticing a slight bruise on her arm.

"Ah! Sorry! I got a bit rough when I tried to get you out of the way..." Aomine apologized, reaching a hand for her to help pull her up. A slight swish of a basket net and the whistle followed soon after signaled the opposing team had scored, causing a wave of unpleasant murmurs throughout the spectating crowds and even a few 'boos'.

Keeping her blank expression, she monotonously thanked the tanned boy and got back on her feet with his help. They both watched as the enemy Center smirked at them as he jogged by, earning furious looks from the tanned boy while she remained composed. But her eyes showed otherwise.

"Aomine-kun."

"Huh?" The tanned boy looked back at the blunette beside him, meeting her gaze.

"Could you tell the others that I want to be alone when I go against their Center?" She asked as she flexed her fingers. She wasn't about to let what happened earlier pass.

"...Okay. Just be careful." The tanned boy nodded, adding a tone of concern before he jogged off with a glare at the player he was going to mark.

"That girly almost got sent to the nurse's office." His opponent mocked smugly, taunting the tanned boy who was already trying his best to hold his anger back. These guys were an embarrassment among basketball players...

Takara, on the other hand, caught up to Seijuro who didn't waste any second to scold her. "You better keep your guard up..." He glared at the opposing team while walking with his adoptive little sister by his side. "I don't want to see my beloved sister in the nurse's office on her first day!"

"I'm not really your sister though..." Takara murmured, causing them to halt as he gave her a stern look. "...Sorry..I shouldn't have said that..."

"Even if we're not biologically related, we've been living together ever since we were five. We've been through too much together to that to say that is an insult to not just me but the both of us." His eyes seemed to bore into her but she stood her ground and returned his stare with her own apologetic one. She really regretted saying what she said.

"...Sorry..." She repeated, hugging her sides as she did so.

He sighed. He wouldn't want her to worry about it for the rest of the game. For now they all needed to focus. "Forget it, I know you didn't mean it. Now go, we'll mark the rest of them while you go against their Center again." She nodded and began walking away when he wanted to add one more thing. "Takara."

She stopped and turned around.

"...Beat him down." He encouraged with a smirk to which she responded with a nod. The slight twitch on her lips was nearly impossible to spot but he did. She'll show them, he had all his trust in her after all.

Murasakibara, possessing the ball after the seniors scored, passed the ball to Seijuro as he began to run across the court. The giant was rather casual despite what happened to one of his teammates, although it was shown that he too was concerned when he accidentally let his guard down and allowed them to score earlier when it happened. Now, he was on the offense with Seijuro, marking on of the seniors while the red head did the same with his opponent.

Midorima and Aomine also went to mark the others, isolating the enemy Center to pit against the teal haired girl. She had a dangerous glint in her eyes as she was given the ball just a moment ago by Seijuro. Dribbling it a few times before stopping in front of the taller and evidently stronger male opponent. He smirked as he watch her tensing up, her legs somewhat shaky.

"What's this?" He snickered, eying her shaking knees. "You still scared, girly?"

"Scared?" The girl questioned, unsure of what he meant as she bounced the ball once more, her eyes hardening. "I'm just excited..."

He blinked...

She was gone.

"...That I could show you that your ways of playing basketball will ultimately fail" was the chilling whisper in the wind as he stood frozen with his mouth agape. He felt a breeze past by him at that exact moment after blinked and that ghostly whisper sent shivers down his spine.

"G-ghost..." He stuttered his eyes still staring in shock at the spot where the girl had been earlier. "S-she's not human..."

There was a swishing sound followed by the resounding bounce of the basketball against the smooth wooden surface of the gym. The senior Center turned around to notice the girl standing under the goal, her icy blue eyes seemed to be staring into his soul. It froze him once again, he could see the anger and the accusing look in her eyes. It was then that he felt as if Hell itself had decided to make itself home on the court.

"D-don't you dare think we're going to back down like this!" He shouted as the game resumed with him having the ball in his possession.

He was about to charge when he was once again stopped by the blunette. He growled as he scanned around the court to find any of his teammates which were open but found them all being marked and pressured hard by the freshmen. Sweat was accumulating on his forehead as he desperate think of any means to get past this brat of a freshman. He would not lose to his junior, especially a girl!

He moved, swiftly running to the right without dribbling for the few steps it took. Noticing that, the referee was about to blow for traveling but one desperate, intimidating and frustrated pair of eyes belonging to the Center stopped him from doing so. Instead, he let it pass, afraid of what would happen to him if he called it right there.

_Yes! I'll make it!_

His gritted teeth stretched into a half-grin as he successfully dodged her. All he needed to do now was speed down the court and-

_*Smack*_

The ball left his hands again without him noticing. He stumbled a few steps before he noticed her running the opposite way with the ball in her hands. With nobody able to stop her, the petite girl scored another two points for her team and the crowd cheered loudly. It was now 6 to 2 with the freshmen in the lead by four points. The senior center could only gape at that.

"I-impossible..." The word that would slowly destroy them piece by piece escaped from his lips as he watched the freshmen team gather around the teal haired girl, cheering her and happily chatting although she didn't show any expression at all.

It wasn't long until the whistle blew, signalling the end of the first quarter and to everyone's surprise, the score to was 14 to 6 with the freshmen easily conquering the seniors. Takara and the others could hear the cheers and the nicknames that were forming from amongst the crowd. Some she could hear were quite funny, earning a nearly visible smile which lasted merely a second before it disappeared again and replaced with her usual expressionless mask.

"They're amazing!"

"The freshmen are overwhelming the seniors!"

"They're like live breathing miracles!"

Cheers and excited chatter filled the air as the break was coming to an end. Satsuki was once again informing them of any new information and the 'siblings' of the team discussed and planned strategies to go against the enemy in the next quarter.

"Good luck!" The pinkette cheerily called out as the team got back onto the court. "I'll go buy some refreshments so you can refuel yourselves during the next break~" She immediately disappeared in the crowd, squeezing her way through and out the gym, running towards the closest group of vending machines stationed between two gyms.

She stood there, pondering on what to get for them which was actually pretty difficult. Especially since they just met each other! She sighed as she massaged her temple, deciding whether she should buy their drinks based on what she observed or just straight out buy them the same energy drinks Dai-chan usually drinks. Tapping her foot, she decided to go with her instinct. A woman's intuition if you may.

_Murasakibara-kun seemed like he prefer sweet drinks so..._

She scanned through the vending machines, trying her best to find an energy drink that was also high on sugar, selecting one that had vanilla as its main flavoring, pausing when a certain sky-blue haired girl popped up in her mind when she looked at the drink. She shrugged it off before going back to square one with the other three that she had just met.

_Taka-chan..._

Her thoughts went back to when she met the smaller teal haired girl. She seemed so cute and cuddly that she couldn't help but hug her the moment she met her. Then she remembered her rather unique fascination with the cherry blossoms when they were walking out of the main school building to sign up for the basketball club. This was harder to think about than the purple haired giant...

She scratched her head as she began thinking of what to buy for the smaller girl before she once again went on instinct and bought something sweet for the girl, unsure if she had selected the right thing. For her new 'best' female friend, she bought a strawberry flavored energy drink before moving on to the red head who was like a brother to the teal head.

_Akashi-kun didn't seem like a person who would like anything sweet..._

She turned to eye the next vending machine where it sold an assortment of canned tea both hot and cold. It would be best if she went for something cold and sugarless for the red head who seemed rather intimidating despite his size. Yet, during those breaks, he had a charismatic aura around him which made her feel as if he was meant to take the captain position of the team.

Shaking her head to avoid drifting away in her train of thoughts, she chose a can of sugar-free green tea and moved on to buying Midorima's drink. Another puzzled look formed on her face as she once again became lost in thought. What does a green haired, serious looking guy who seemed to be way too superstitious want for a drink?

"Hm..."

Her eyes slowly moved towards the can on the top right of the vending machine, reading '_Chilly Red Bean Soup_' and instantly bought it. She had no idea why but her guts told her the green haired boy would probably like it. Then she went with the usual energy drink that she knew her childhood friend would drink to refuel himself. Having all the refreshments in her arms, she gave herself a proud smile and turned around only to bump into someone.

"Oof!"

"Ah, my bad."

The person she bumped into apologized half heartedly but instead of actually helping her, he stood there with a flirtatious grin. Warnings started blaring her thoughts that the guy in front of her yelled out trouble and that's the last thing she wanted to run into. Quickly, she grabbed all the drinks that fell out of her hands and left with a hushed 'excuse me' to which the boy responded with an irritated look.

But the boy was stubborn as he grabbed her by the arm forcefully, trying to coo the girl. "Hey now, I can help out with those drinks if ya want."

"No thank you." The pinkette tried her best to sound polite but it came out in a grunt as she ripped herself away from the ashen haired boy's grip. "Now if you'll excuse me, I got to go."

With that, the girl hastily left the scene, nearly running. She wanted to get away from that gray haired boy as fast as possible. And then came another problem... For some reason the crowd seemed to have thicken with barely anyway to get past the flock of murmuring students. Did something incredible happen? Or something bad? She couldn't tell and the mixed expressions among the audience only further confuse the pinkette as she tried to squeeze herself through.

"Uu~ Excuuussseee meeee!" She forcefully squeezed herself past people within the crowd, nearly dropping the drinks she bought earlier as she neared the front. "Uah! Waahh~"

She nearly tripped as soon as she broke out of the crowd and ended up at the front, where she could clearly see the game. Everyone on court looked so exhausted it was to the point where she thought they might collapse with the teal haired girl being the most obvious. The petite girl was sweating profusely with her arms supporting her upper body as she leaned on her knees. They needed a time out, badly!

Her eyes moved towards the table where announcements and the scores were displayed and gaped when she noticed the score.

_42 to 16?!_

That was a huge lead for a team of first years. 26 points... She glanced back at her fellow freshmen who were still playing with widened eyes. Although she had been with Dai-chan almost her entire life and knew that the tanned boy was extremely good at the game, it wasn't possible for him to score that many by himself which leads to the conclusion that all of them had also did a fair amount of contribution to the current points.

She had witnessed the teal haired girl's abilities first hand with those two goals she did and it felt like she missed a huge chunk of plays by the rest of the freshmen team. She bit her lips as she continued to spectate the game from the sides, noticing that there was still half of the second quarter left.

Once again, it was the seniors' ball after they were scored again by the annoying teal haired bitch who had a mocking look in her eyes despite her blank expression. It was pissing them off and they prioritized her as their main victim. They would crush her! Passing the ball to their captain, they started down the court as he scanned the court for openings.

Just as he was about to move forward, he was marked by the petite girl, earning a growl of frustration from the senior as he looked past her to see if any of his teammates were open. None of them were. He would need to break through. Glaring at the teal haired girl, he charged forward with a sudden burst of speed, half of him hoping that he could knock her down.

"Takara!"

The red head was once again worried as the enemy captain decided to charge at her but she dodged him perfectly as she side stepped before twirling around and began her pursuit. It wasn't long until she caught up with the larger player and smacked the ball out of his hands, landing it right into Seijuro's. The red haired freshman smirked as he whipped around and sped his way down the court, noticing that his mark was hot on his tail.

Noticing that the senior moved without a perfect form and could fall over at anytime, the red head timed himself before switching his direction, causing the senior to lose his balance and tumble to the ground. Ankle break.

"Damn it!" He heard the older player curse as he ran past him.

The red head smiled as he easily scored another two points for his team before he glanced around the court to find the teal haired girl being marked by two players as the game immediately continued. They won't be able to mark her. Not when she's like _this_.

It took them only a few seconds before they realized the petite girl had disappeared from their sights, reappearing in front of the senior who had the ball. He cursed as he tried to get past her only to fall for her trap and lose grip of the ball when he dived to the left. Now with the ball in her possession, she sped her way down the court before three of them halted her at once much to her annoyance.

"I'm not the only one you should be worrying about."

She faked a shot and instead passed the ball into Midorima's hands who was behind her only a few meters away. Recovering from being surprised at the sudden pass, the green head took aim and shot the ball, earning three points for his team.

53 to 16.

The whistle blew, signaling the end of the first half. The freshmen once again gather together as they took the time to rest. Satsuki ran up to them with the drinks in her arms as they began to discuss what to do next. While Aomine plopped down on the floor along with Murasakibara, Seijuro, Takara and Midorima remained standing although the petite female player seemed on the verge of fainting.

"You shouldn't push yourself." The red chided her as he notice her legs wobbling before they gave way to which he caught her in his arms. "Let us do the rest on the second half."

"I can still play..." The teal head stubbornly retorted, pouting at her adoptive older 'brother'.

"No, you'll be replacing Murasakibara-kun on defense."

"What? But it's such a pain~" The purple haired giant complained only to be silenced by the sharp glance from the red head.

"Anyway! Here! Drink up!" The pinkette passed them drinks that she had bought earlier before she too sat down on the court.

They all thanked her as they caught their drinks. While Seijuro, Aomine and even Midorima seemed satisfied with the drinks they were given, Takara couldn't help but eye the vanilla flavored drink in a certain purple giant's hand. Noticing this, Murasakibara looked back and forth between the drink in his hand and the intent stare from the petite girl before he asked her.

"Kurochin want this?"

She nodded, ignoring the weird nickname the giant seemed to gave her as her eyes seemed to be sparkling at the mention of it like a little child. It took all of the pinkette's willpower to resist the urge to tackle the smaller girl and squeal. The purple giant didn't seem to mind as he handed her the cream colored drink in exchange for the pink one in her hand. Watching the happy look in her eyes despite the blank look on her face, Satsuki made a mental note that vanilla was apparently the teal head's favorite.

Soon, the freshmen team was recharged and full of energy as they jumped back into the court after a discussion of plans and strategies like they did with their other breaks. Despite their incredible lead, they wouldn't dare let their guard down against those scum that were embarrassingly their seniors. One wrong move and they might be dealt with much more serious injuries than just a couple of bruises.

Overtime, the seniors' attempt at foul play became more common and desperate to the point where it's predictable. Charging, 'accidental' ball slips at high speeds, foot stomping, elbows and kicks, it wouldn't be long before they run dry of dirty tricks.

Takara was once again in possession of the ball when it was passed to her by Seijuro. She hunched over somewhat as she began to feel light headed.

_Takara! _The red head cursed as he noticed the slight movements from the teal haired girl and immediately ran to her. He watched as the senior took this opportunity to not only smack the ball away but also attempting to knock the weakened girl over with his full force. "Takara!"

Once again, surprising the senior, the petite female player dodged the oncoming charge and ducked before slapping the ball out of his hands, directing it into Seijuro's. But the red head swiftly passed the ball to Midorima as he ran to her aid. She was exerting herself too much! She needed to rest...Or at least stay on defense where it's safer.

Earlier, she assured him that she would be fine and he cursed himself for not noticing the act. She looked as if she was fully recharged after that ten minute break and it dealt a blow to him to have not seen it through.

"You're staying on defense." The red head stated with an authoritative tone.

"No-"

"Yes you are." He sternly cut her off, glaring at her before his eyes softening. "Takara, don't push yourself. It's not just me who would be worried now."

Those words seemed to have reached her as her light blue orbs widened just a bit before looking around at her other teammates. They all shared the same look of concern for her. What was this? Her chest felt warm as she gently laid a hand over where her heart was. Noticing the change in her, he smiled before his expression turned serious.

"Murasakibara-kun. Let Takara play on the defense. Go on the offense with us." He ordered to which the giant nodded without any complaints.

The game all the while was continuing when they had that talk. Aomine and Midorima struggled slightly during that minute but they still managed to keep their lead. Although during that one minute, the enemy managed to score four points, the gap between them was still huge. 62 to 20.

Third quarter ended with the point gap being closer than imagined at 71 to 42, a 29 points difference which was slowly getting smaller. The freshmen were tiring much faster than the seniors despite being better players, making them wonder if it was because of their age difference or was it due to teiko's basketball club trainings which they heard were extremely strict.

Even so, the enemy team seemed just as tired but they had a smirk on. They could outlast them, they could win!

Fourth quarter came as it was starting to look grim for the freshmen team. Their movements were sloppier than before and fatigue could be seen from their looks. Excessive amount of sweat trailed down their bodies and soaked their clothes to the last thread as they continued the game, barely holding onto the lead. Along the way, the seniors tried to push their opponents even further into exhaustion by adding more bruises to their collection although they could barely touch the lone female player.

By the time the fourth quarter had reached half, the score was at 87 to 79, an 8 point difference and the seniors were closing in on them fast.

"Come on you freshmen _brats_! Is that all you got?!" The spiked senior taunted as he did another three pointer with Aomine barely able to block him. It bounced on the rim but it still got in, closing the gap even further to a mere 5 points difference. "Tch."

This was bad. Even Seijuro who was usually calm looked desperate to those who were observant enough to see through that calm demeanor of his. Luckily, only Takara noticed it as she looked at her 'brother's' face from the side. She gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into fists on her knees, she had to do something to help!

She tried to steady her already ragged breathing, refocusing herself and calming her fast beating heart. Her eyes seemed to have renewed fire once she was done composing herself although she was still breathing heavily. She eyed the senior who had the ball and watched as he did a drive, dodging her tanned teammate before running in range to her.

_Now!_

With a burst of speed she reached the senior without his notice as he made a shot for a three pointer. His eyes widened when his field of vision was blurred out for a second by something light blue before he heard the ball bounce off the rim of the goal. He blinked once then twice before noticing the small figure that ran past him, realization dawned on him as to what happened.

_That bitch! She's still got some tricks up her sleeve?!_

He growled as his team was once again on the defense. He ran back along with his teammates as the freshmen began their way down the court. Although exhausted, they still had a determined fire in their eyes and it will not burn out until they win this match! Immediately, the red head in possession of the ball pointed out orders before moving forward, a plan coming to shape.

He immediately faked a pass to the right before switching hands and diving to the left, effectively getting past his marker before he was stopped again by the enemy Center.

"I won't let you!" The Center shouted as he stood his ground, waving his arms in an attempt to block the smaller freshman. But the red head returned his glare with his own, nearly freezing the older player.

Taking the opportunity for that split second of hesitation from the senior, Seijuro passed the ball to a waiting Aomine who sped down the court with the last of his effort as soon as he got the ball. He jumped once he was in range and attempted to do another dunk-

"Not so fast!" The enemy captain somehow caught up to him, jumping a bit later than the tanned boy and blocking his dunk followed by a knee to the freshman's stomach.

"Ack!" Aomine winced as he landed on his back. A new wave of gasps and murmurs rapidly spread amongst the crowd of spectators.

"Go! Score the damn thing!" The captain threw the ball with all his might.

It landed into the Center's hands as he began his run towards the freshmen's goal only to be once again stopped by the teal haired girl. His eyes widened in shock as she duck with a hand reaching out for the ball in his hands.

_Oh no you don't!_

Acting desperately, he quickly adjusted his position so that his left knee was free to be lifted and was aimed directly at her stomach. Takara, realizing the Center's intentions had no way to stop herself as his knee lifted, ready to impact her abdomen. She squeezed her eyes shut as she braced for the inevitable-

The blow never came.

Instead, she bumped into someone's back before falling back on her bum with an audible groan. It hurts, but at least it wasn't the knee that she needed to deal with. Rubbing her nose, she looked up to see another senior standing between her and her opponent with his back facing her. But unlike the seniors they had faced who were wearing normal basketball shorts and T-shirts, the senior before her was wearing the school's jersey with the number 4.

_The captain of Teiko's team._

She watched quietly as the club's captain glared down at the senior she just faced with a disapproving look before his stern voice interrogated the Center. "What were you doing, Tonogawa?"

"I-It wasn't what it looks like! I just had the wrong stance-"

"To kick her?" The club captain cut him off as his eyes narrowed, awaiting for another excuse.

"K-kick her? N-no way! Hehehe...Never..R-right guys?" Tonogawa stuttered as he backed up a bit, trying his best to act like he didn't do it on purpose as he also glanced at his teammates for help. They averted their eyes away from his, causing the boy to panic as he snapped his attention back to the captain of the regulars.

"You got guts to go and challenge the first years without me or the director's permission. Especially when you're merely second strings." The taller captain stepped forward as he grabbed the second string Center by the collar. "And to dirty our club's reputation as well?"

"N-no, w-we-"

"That's enough Nijimura." A voice sounded from the entrance of the gym caught everyone's attention. Walking in was a man in his late 20s from the looks of it, sporting framed glasses and a scowl.

"Takara, you alright?" She turned to see Aomine standing beside her with an outstretched hand to help her up. Accepting it, she was pulled back up on her feet before her attention went back to the new arrivals.

"It appears that we were not actually meant to play these to get in." The teal haired girl mused, patting and straightening out her school uniform before frowning a bit. She was so focused on the game that she didn't even notice that her uniform was soaked with sweat.

"Yeah? Well, it looks like we weren't the ones at fault." The tanned boy shrugged.

"Not quite." They both turned to see Seijuro eying the two new arrivals with an expectant look.

Not long after a near-yelling argument between the captain of the regulars and the group of second string seniors that they played against, Nijimura's attention was diverted to the freshmen on court. He still looked furious but he seemed calmer when he eyed all five of the first years before walking up to them.

"You." He pointed at them. "What're your names?"

They all introduced themselves to the regular's captain, some stuttered a little while the rest hid their uneasiness under the taller senior's stare. Nijimura then noticed the bruises they obtained while playing against those second strings but he would care about those later. These first years needs to know that they shouldn't be playing against the club until they're in it.

"Nijimura, let me handle this." The bespectacled man stopped the tall captain before he was about to scold them, stepping in front of them with a stern look. "I see those club seniors did quite a bit of damage on you."

All them averted their gazes, their minds slowly registering the throbbing pain in spots on their bodies that had been targeted by the seniors. Some of them gritted their teeth in anger as to what those seniors did but they kept silent as they allowed the man to continue.

"You don't need to worry. They'll be expelled from the club." That sudden announcement regained their attention as their eyes snapped back to the man with surprise. Just getting caught using foul play once meant that they would get expelled? That seemed a bit harsh. Noticing their bewildered looks, the man shook his head. "They were supposed to be kicked out a while ago anyway."

"Ano..." Takara raised her voice so that she could get his attention. "Who are you and what did you mean that they were supposed to be kicked out?"

"Ah, right. Pardon my rudeness. I'm Sanada, the assistant coach for Teiko's basketball team." The man answered, adjusting his glasses as he looked back at the defeated forms of the second stringers from earlier sitting on a bench on the other side of the court. "They were given many chances but this was the last straw."

"You mean they had been playing like that for a long time?"

The assistant coach merely nodded in response. "But enough of that." He looked at each of the five freshmen in front of him with an observant gaze before his eyes widening slightly. "Today wasn't meant to decide whether or not you will be joining the basketball club, tomorrow is the try outs. We're only accepting applications today."

"What?!" The tanned boy blurted out. "So all of that was for nothing-"

"Calm down, Aomine." The green haired boy beside him interjected. "We could still fill in our applications."

"Unfortunately, it's well past the time." That sentence from the assistant coach froze them in place before they all emitted a rather gloomy aura around the gym. Thankfully, the crowds were cleared out before it reached them. "But don't worry, you four are an exception."

"Four?" The red head shifted his eyes to the teal haired girl who seemed to have expected this, noticing the slight sadness in her eyes. "I beg your pardon, Sanada-san?"

"I'm sorry." He too switched his attention towards the lone female player that had her gaze focused to the floor. "But she's not eligible to join the basketball club unless she applies as a manager."

"What?! That's bullshit!" The tanned boy voiced out his disagreement, stepping forward. "She's more than capable of playing!"

"That's not it." Sanada sharply turned to glare at the short tempered first year. "I've observed her during the last few minutes of the match. She's definitely a good player and she definitely possess a huge amount of potential but..." He turned back to the girl, meeting her blank stare. "Her body couldn't keep up. To be honest, I'm surprised you're standing here as you are."

The petite girl's eyes softened as she realized that the man had saw through her facade. Her legs began to give out from underneath but was quickly caught by Aomine who was the closest person standing near her. Although she stayed conscious, her body had exceeded its limit and was entirely shut down, barely able to stand.

"Oi! Takara don't faint on spot!" The tanned boy panicked as he continued to support the small girl beside him, earning a small smile from the girl.

"I'm okay, Aomine-kun...My body's just tired." She assured him.

"The most she could play during a match should've been one quarter. Two if she conserved her energy and didn't play at full capacity." The assistant coach calculated before he noticed the red head's glare.

"Are you looking down on her?" Seijuro questioned, his voice laced with a threatening tone.

"No, it was a fact and you know it too." The assistant coach stated, returning the glare back at him.

"Let her prove to you." The red head requested, although it sounded more like a demand than an actual request. "She's capable of joining."

Sanada studied the red head as he adjusted his framed glasses, seeing the determination and faith in the teal haired girl. He switched his attention back to the petite girl and noticed the same determination in her eyes and a little speck of hope despite her blank expression. He had to choose and weigh his options and words carefully. He didn't want to lose the opportunity of getting these four promising freshmen to join the basketball team due to his very own personal opinion.

He respected the girl's skill in play and at times, physical capabilities like her speed but her stamina was below average. And despite not mentioning about not joining if their friend didn't get accepted, he needed to count it as a possibility. The pressure was beginning to get to him, once again glancing at each of them before he sighed in defeat.

"I'll see what the director's say in this is. In the meantime, you are all allowed to attend the try outs tomorrow despite not having an application submitted. I'll add you to the list myself."

"Yeah!" The tanned boy cheered as his grip on the girl got a bit tighter without him noticing.

The petite girl merely smiled at that without anyone noticing. She was happy that she was given a chance, although it was not a hundred percent, it was still a possibility and with that in mind, she was satisfied. The others had their own way of internally celebrating not just the unofficial victory against the club's second stringers but also the success in persuading the assistant coach to allow the teal head to participate in the try outs.

Only two of them were outwardly celebrating, one of them being the petite girl's first female friend in the school. She returned after getting caught in the flow of students exiting the gym and had missed the conversation between them and the assistant coach. But when she was informed of what happened, she immediately went and glomped all over the petite teal haired girl.

"Taka-chan congratulations~!" She cheered as she pulled the smaller girl in an embrace.

"Satsuki-chan...Please refrain from hugging me too tightly..."

"Oh! Sorry!" She loosened her hug so as to not crush the smaller girl. The others looked on as if Satsuki's affections were just methods of torture in disguise, seeing how a simple hug could nearly suffocate Takara.

"Satsuki, I believe it's about time we go." The red head informed as he noticed the time on his cellphone. The second reason being that he needed to rescue his 'sister' from the pink haired girl's death hugs.

"Oh right! Sorry, Akashi-kun, Taka-chan!" The pinkette apologized before helping the teal head up. "But are you guys really in a hurry?" That question wasn't just directed towards Seijuro and Takara. The pink haired girl glanced at the others who were all shrugging, indicating that they were free at the moment. A smile crept on her face as she got something in mind. "Neh, let's all go celebrate at a restaurant or something!"

"Huh? What's with that, Satsuki?" The tanned boy complained. "What's with that all of a sudden?"

"Mou, Dai-chan! It's your first middle school victory~" The pinkette puffed her cheeks and pouted cutely despite the fact that the tanned boy was immune to her charms.

"It sounds like a drag~" The purple giant drawled.

"It seemed that the majority is not in the mood." Midorima commented in, re-adjusting his glasses.

The pout on the pink haired girl's face turned into a slight frown at everyone's response, slightly dismayed that the latter half of the first day of their middle school was starting out so dull. Noticing the frown, the petite girl cocked her head as she studied the pinkette's expression before smiling softly at it. It was the first time the teal head was involved in a discussion like this and she too wanted to hang out with them a while longer.

"But it would be fun, wouldn't it?"

Her voice caught their attention and their eyes widened in surprise at the happy soft smile the petite girl had on before turning their heads away to hide the blush on their faces save for Murasakibara and Seijuro.

"I-I guess." The green head seemed to stutter as he changed his mind.

"Eh...I guess it wouldn't be that bad..." Aomine managed to mutter as he scratched the back of his head, avoiding the teal haired girl's eyes.

Takara's smile became slightly more visible at their new responses, turning up to look at her 'brother' for his answer. "Sei?"

"I guess it wouldn't be that bad to stay out of the house for little longer." He smiled and shrugged as he looked down at the teal head. "Besides, didn't you always wanted to experience something like this?"

She answered him with a nod. "But before that...Can I go and take a rest for a bit?" She asked as her eyes fluttered slightly, trying to stay awake.

"Hm...Then let's go home-"

"No, Sei...Just let me rest a bit in the nurse's office for a bit." She pleaded as she tugged onto his shirt.

He sighed. "Fine."

* * *

She was laid on one of the bed's in the nurse's office a while ago, dozing off not long afterwards. Seijuro had intended to stay and watch her but Satsuki insisted that she do it, assuring the red head that she would take care of her for him. Although he was reluctant, the boy nodded and went out along with the others to play a two on two with each other at basketball.

"Mm..." The teal head stirred as she rolled to the other side of the bed, her fingers slowly leaving the covers they hid under and gently grazing the edge of the bedsheets while her body subconsciously searched for another comfortable position before her eyes fluttered open.

"Hey, you're awake." A cheery voice to her left made her turn to that direction, spotting the pinkette sitting next to her bed.

"Mhm. How long did I sleep?" She mumbled from under the sheets.

"About an hour and half." Satsuki answered as she took out her phone to read the the time. It was 4 in the evening.

"The others?"

"They're outside playing." The pinkette gestured out the window where the sounds of a basketball dribbling and shouts were heard. "Akashi-kun is with them too, if you're wondering."

"Nn." The petite girl nodded as she sat up. "That's good."

The pink haired girl noticed a relieved look in the smaller girl's eyes, drawing some curiosity from her. What was their relationship? They acted like any pair of siblings out there despite have different last names and appearances. They didn't look related at all. Why did she look relieved when Akashi-kun was with the others? Many questions were filling up her mind but she refrained from asking. To ask for their history after just meeting them earlier today was a bit too rushed.

"Neh, Satsuki-chan..."

"Hai?" The pinkette snapped out of her thoughts as the teal head called her.

"Why would you want a girl like me to be your friend?" She once again asked her the question which she already answered.

"Mou, Taka-chan. I told you, I want to be friends with you because I want to!" The pinkette pouted at her, her hands on her waist. "But if you're looking for a real reason..." Her eyes softened as she thought about her reasons.

"I'm happy."

She was interrupted from her thoughts by that sudden words. She looked up to see tears nearly falling out of the petite girl's eyes despite how small the smile on her lips was. "Taka-chan? You look like you're about to cry!"

Realizing that her usually blank mask was shed, she tried to hide it by ducking back under the blanket, wiping her eyes of the tears hidden from view before she blurted out an apology out of no where. "_Gomen..._"

"Why are you apologizing? Silly!" Satsuki chuckled as she heard the soft apology the smaller girl made.

"Nn...I don't really know either..." She peaked out of the blanket as she stared at the ceiling. "But...Thank you..." Her usually blank light blue eyes turned towards the pinkette with sincere gratitude as she murmured from beneath the sheets.

"What's with all this?" The pinkette grinned as she noticed the new expression in the teal head's eyes.

"It's just that...You're my first friend..." Takara confessed, earning an incredulous look from the pink haired girl beside her. Her cheeks turned a shade or two redder, but with her already pale complexion, the blush seemed nearly ten times more prominent.

She couldn't hold it! The cuteness meter in her head burst as she squealed before she once again glomped over the smaller girl. "Kyaaah! _Kawaiii_~"

Takara tried to squirm out of the pinkette's death hug but gave up eventually as she knew that she would eventually let her go. And after a few more seconds, the pinkette slowly let her go before sitting back on her seat with a huge smile to which the teal head returned. Was this what it's like to have a friend?

"Thank you..."

"You said that already!" The pinkette giggled at rather jumbled up conversation with the teal head. "But you're welcome." A soft gentle smile graced her lips as she watched the smaller girl doze off once again, stroking her hair as she did so.

She found it humorous how they had only just recently met and yet here she was, taking care of her as if she was her own little sister or close friend. It almost felt like she had some sort of mysterious power that could sway her to pamper the smaller girl. And to realize that she was her first friend, she wondered what had this girl sleeping in front of her had been through.

Either way, that expression she had earlier had definitely swayed her over. She's definitely going to continue being Taka-chan's friend, best friend even. To support her from today and onwards along with the others that she had recently made friends with. She has a hunch that this newly formed circle of friends would be the most prominent highlight of her teenage life and maybe even further.

"Let's be the best of friends, neh Taka-chan."

* * *

**Sorry if some of the characters here are a bit OOC. Hopefully I did alright with this chapter!**

**Thank you to those who reviewed last chapter, really gets me motivated to know people like what I read! That doesn't mean I don't appreciate some criticism though so go ahead and point out what's wrong in my story when possible! I'll really appreciate it!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Teiko's Princess**

**Fourth Quarter: Unexpected Reunion? And aiming for the Try Outs!  
**

"To celebrate our first victory!, _kanpai_!" The pinkette merrily raised her glass of soda as everyone else followed suit rather unenthusiastically save fore Takara who was beside her. Glaring, Satsuki scratched her head as she let out a frustrating sigh. "Come on you guys! You just won your first game!"

"It was unofficial." Midorima interjected as he took a sip of his glass of orange soda.

"It's still a victory. I'm actually quite happy about it" Takara reasoned, placing down a rather extravagant looking vanilla shake down, totally contrasting what the others had. Her monotone voice made it seem like she was being sarcastic, followed by her blank expression made it even harder to believe the teal haired girl was happy. But two could see the twinkle of happiness in her eyes, especially when you're right beside her. The pinkette could swear that she was seeing imaginative flowers blooming all around the smaller girl.

"You don't look happy though, Taka." Aomine skeptically commented as he studied the petite girl's expression. It would seem everyone was trying to give her nicknames with Satsuki calling her 'Taka-chan' and Aomine following suit without the honorific. Murasakibara started calling her 'Kurochin' when they traded drinks earlier during a break in the match. Midorima still addresses her with her family name while Seijuro would call her by her given name and sometimes, his '_imouto_' much to the teal head's pleasure.

"I don't?" She cocked her head in confusion.

"No, you do. It's just Daiki's poor observation that's speaking at the moment." The red head reassured the teal head girl, making a small jab at the tanned boy with a smirk.

"Oi! Akashi!" Aomine retorted before backing down, knowing that if he tried going up against the red head, it would be a losing battle.

"Sorry for the wait! Here's your food!" A waitress announced as she and another two held the teenage group's orders, placing them down in front of the guests.

Truly, their food really showed off their personality. In Takara's point of view anyway. While Seijuro had a rather expensive looking meal set consisting of a well prepared steak with a side of perfectly cooked rice along with mouthed watering gravy covering the steak at a high grade, Takara herself had merely a Vanilla shake and smaller version of what the red head had.

Aomine, being a rather active boy with a big appetite, ordered a large grill plate steak set with an extra serving of rice. Midorima had a meal set that really seemed out of place for him, saying that this was today's lucky dish to which many of them responded with skeptical looks.

"So, there's also a 'lucky dish' section for Oha-Asa now?" The blunette asked with a deadpanned look as she whispered '_itadakimasu_' followed by the others.

"Well I-"

"Woah! Murasakibara! What's with all those meal sets?!" Aomine's surprised outburst had steered away any attention from the green head as everyone turned to gape at the giant taking on three meals at once.

"I was hungry~" The purple haired giant merely drawled as he continued munching down on one of the meals. "Oh, I forgot to order deserts..."

"You could still stomach deserts after eating all this?!" The tanned boy pointed at a plate Murasakibara recently finished clean, two more to go!

"Of course." The giant answered as if it was obvious as he continued to chow down on the next meal, finishing it at a rather fast pace.

"Anyway, let's do our best in the try outs tomorrow! Hope you will all get into first string of the club~" The pinkette once again raised her glass, actually managing to get out a more enthusiastic response from the group, even Seijuro participated in the clinking of the glasses although without a word. He had a smirk on his face.

"Taka-chan?"

At the call of her nickname, said girl snapped out of her trance as she looked up at the pinkette beside her. "Yes?"

"Are you alright?" The pink haired girl asked, concerned as to why despite all the reverie going on and how enthusiastic she was about going out with friends, she was still so quiet.

"Nn." She nodded in reply. "I'm still kind of tired from the game, that's all."

"Even after you slept for two hours in the nurse's office?" Satsuki was still skeptical, raising a delicate brow at the petite girl's excuse in which she responded with another nod. Knowing that the small blunette would prefer not being asked about what's on her current mind at the moment, the pinkette relented and continued on with the celebratory meal.

Despite worrying about tomorrow's try outs and the second stringers that they played against, Takara still managed to enjoy their little group's celebration. From time to time, she actually smiled albeit a nearly invisible gesture on her part. The event had continued well past six in the evening, when the sun had already settled on the horizon and had began to make way for night before they decided to take their leave.

"Whew, that meal was great! _gochisousama_!" The tanned boy grinned as he pat his now full stomach. The meal was the best that he had in a while.

"For once, I agree. Now, I have to go home and retape my fingers." The green head adjusted his glasses, ending his sentence with a strange addition and flexing his left hand.

"Huh? '_Nanodayo_'?" Aomine burst into laughter at the weird way of speaking, slapping a hand on the green head's shoulder heartily as he continued to laugh on how weird he spoke much to Midorima's chagrin.

After a while, they decided to part ways in front of the restaurant that they had just ate at, waving each other as they left. While Aomine and Satsuki went the opposite direction, the rest were coincidentally living in the same direction with the Akashi 'siblings' being a bit further than the other two. The two had been called by their butler, asking if they require any need of transport to which the red head answered to wait for his call to pick them up.

"_Of course, Seijuro-sama._" Okanatsu's voice obeyed his decision before the red head hung up.

The sound of shouts, squeaking sneakers and dribbling reached their ears as they walked by a park. But the shouts didn't seem like anything cooperative as a few swear words were thrown followed by some heated arguments, catching the teal haired girl's attention. Noticing the girl stopping with her attention towards the direction of the court, the others stopped as well.

"Takara?" Seijuro inquired before he listened closer to the shouting. They sounded familiar.

Narrowing her eyes, the petite girl made a bee line towards the source of the commotion.

_It's them..._

Seijuro, knowing that his sister could never seemed to ignore conflicts in basketball followed closely with the other two of them also following. Not long later, they reached the court where the shouting was taken place, and as she expected, it was the same group of second string seniors that they had beaten. Only this time, there were only three of them as they once again played dirty against students from a different school.

"Oi! That's a foul!" One of the students shout in anger after being charged at.

"Eh? Says who?"

The four new arrivals didn't hesitate a second as they started down the court without the others noticing. It was only when the teal head grabbed the senior's arm from pulling on the other student's collar that they let their presence known, startling the whole group. Narrowing his eyes, the senior pulled his arm away with a growl. It was them again.

"Looks like you still haven't learned your lesson." Takara's eyes narrowed dangerously. Despite seemingly harmless, when she's angered she seemed like a completely different person. A trait that she may have gotten after years of living with the Akashi family. A combination of her near invisible presence and an aura that emitted pure intimidation when angered ruined the image of her angelic innocent yet deadpanned personality from before.

"Tch, it's you brats again..."

"Would you like to be beaten by us again?" Seijuro stepped forward in between the two, shielding petite girl with his person as he glared.

"..." The senior stayed silent as he fearfully looked into those glaring red eyes of the smaller boy in front of him, knowing that accepting the challenge would be a bad choice before he gave in to his instincts and probably saved their hides. "Let's go..."

The three seniors left the court without any protest, fearing that if they stayed any longer they might end up losing with humiliation and other stuff they didn't want to mention. As soon as they left, Takara knelt down beside one of the three students who were all staring at the red head in awe. Knowing that the boy hadn't noticed her yet, she decided to get his attention.

"Ano." that was already enough to earn her a yelp from the downed student as he seemed to pull himself away a bit while still sitting down. "Are you alright? Could you stand?"

It took the boy a second to calm down from the initial shock before he focused his attention to the blunette that had knelt beside him, blushing when he noticed how cute she looked. "Eto...Nn..." He nodded, stuttering out before he winced as he tried to get up.

Another of the three students rushed to his aid as he threw an arm around his shoulder before lifting the boy up, meeting the girl's gaze along with the other two and nodded their thanks before walking away, picking up the basketball that they had with them along the way.

"It's really troublesome how you're always diving into trouble." Seijuro sighed irritably at the teal haired girl who looked away flustered. It wasn't a bad trait per se, but at times the petite girl would wound up with more than she could handle which was when the red head would step in to aid her.

"_Gomen_..."

"It's alright. At least this conflict was solved without a problem." The red head relented, knowing that scolding her time and time again about this would be futile. That and the fact the the problem did get solved without it worsening.

"It seemed they were playing against those students to relieve their stress on what happened earlier today." Midorima turned to eye where the seniors had left from.

"At least they left now, playing against them would be a drag~" Murasakibara drawled, somehow having a bag of chips in his arms when earlier he didn't seem like he had any place to store it.

"Tch. That attitude of yours is going to get you into trouble one day." The green haired boy frowned at the giant for saying something like that so blatantly.

Deciding that the other two would continue their mindless bickering, the red head turned his attention to the teal haired girl, noticing that she was taking her leave from how it looked. It was already dark and being alone in a park was the last thing he wants his 'sister' to do. Catching up, the red head gently grabbed her by the arm, halting her.

"Don't wander off alone. Especially at a time like this." He told her in which she shook her head with a sigh.

"I'm just going to the restroom, Sei. I'll be back soon." She assured him.

"...It's still dangerous. I'll come with you." There were no arguments as Seijuro pulled ahead with the teal head in tow.

"Sometimes I really wonder if you have some kind of sister's complex."

"You know better than anyone that it's not the reason why I'm protective of you." Seijuro rebutted, a flash of a few bad memories they had to endure together came and went in a second in his mind. "...It's a personal oath to myself."

"..."

They remembered to inform the other two of their early leave and decided to split up to go back to their own homes. The two new acquaintances they had recently made still had thoughts concerning the seniors as they may be still around but the red head dismissed such an idea. Nobody would be so dense and stubborn to continually disturb them. Especially if they knew what's good for them.

The two remained silent as they continued their walk down the dimly lit pathway of the park, with only the night breeze and various night sounds of both nature and urban to keep them company. Soon, they reached one of the public restrooms which they then noticed a faint disgusting smell coming from them. This being their first time to use public facilities, it really left a bad impression for them as the red head ignored the smell whereas Takara lightly pinched her nose to block out the stench.

"I'll wait out here." The red head said as he walked a few meters away from the public facility.

The girl could only raise an eyebrow at that. Even Seijuro wasn't immune to the smell perhaps. A small humorous smile tugged the corner of her lips as she went in the female side of the restroom, her hand still pinching her nose as she entered to do her thing.

It wasn't long before she came back out. The toilets were cleaner than she thought to which she appreciated. And it didn't smell as bad so she didn't need to pinch her nose the whole time. She was about to head towards where Seijuro was before a group of males got out of the male counterpart of the facility, blocking her way. She stopped as she recognized who they were.

_...Oh no.._

"Tch, those freshmen ruined all the fun again. Just like that match today." One of them complained.

_They won't notice me, I'll just walk past them..._

The teal head swiftly walked past them but unfortunately bumped into the next one. Earning a grunt from the person she bumped into. She clicked her tongue in irritation, now there's no way out of this...

"Hey! Watch where you're going- Huh?" The one she bumped into stopped mid sentence as he spotted the familiar long light blue hair and eyes in front of him. "It's _you _again?"

"...Excuse me sempai. Now I'll take my leave." She quickly bowed before walking off briskly, trying her best to avoid eye contact but stopped as she felt a strong grip on her arm.

"Just where did you think you're going? Come back here!" He yanked her back with force, nearly causing her to lose balance as she stumbled back in front of him. "You know? After you humiliated us at that match today, we've been itching to get back at you." His voice hissed as he pulled her arm up, causing her to wince in pain. "It seems like we're lucky to run into one of you, and especially the only _girl _in your team!"

All three of them had grins that screamed 'trouble' as they gathered around their junior. They've been bottling up that urge to get them back and now they have the chance! The one who grabbed her lifted her higher but she resisted the urge to groan, gritting her teeth as they pondered on what could they do that could be even be more humiliating than what had happened during their match.

"Oi oi, weren't you stronger back when we had that game? Where's your strength now you brat?!" He yanked the arm up, forcing a slight wince from her. "And I thought you were some super strong player, look how weak you are when you're not playing basketball!"

They all laughed loudly as they continued their act of bullying. One of them studied her now stretched figure with a leer before whistling a bit. "She actually has quite a good body. Even though she's short."

"Hehe, I wonder what she looks like _under _her uniform!" One joked to which the other two actually considered, earning an uneasy look from the girl.

"That's not a bad idea, Fushou!" The one gripping her arm grinned but the one who suggested it quickly raised his hands up.

"I was just joking! We shouldn't do that..."

"What're you saying?! These brats needs to learn that they shouldn't mess with us!" The other one smacked Fushou on the back of his head before walking up from the side of the girl. "Now where should we begin?"

"I suggest you unhand her."

"What?" They all turned towards the source of the new voice-

_*WHIZZ*_

_*Ping!*_

They all stood frozen in spot as a pair of scissors whizzed by the one grabbing the teal head's arm, missing only by a few millimeters from his head. His grip on her released, the girl quickly snapped her hand back and ran towards the new arrival. All three of them looked as if they had just seen the most frightening thing there was in their entire lives as the red head calmly continued his walk towards them, stopping a few feet away from them.

His red eyes glared furiously as he flexed his fingers. Nobody harasses his dear 'sister'.

"So...It seems that I have miscalculated. You're more stubborn than I expected." His voice was laced with a threatening tone that could probably send chills down anyone's spine. "And more than that, you dared to touch my sister..."

The teal head hid herself behind Seijuro's back as the three seniors backed away. They messed up big time.

The red head took a step...

"Let's get the hell out of here!" One of them shouted before they all ran away.

"Fools." Seijuro scowled as he watched them cowardly flee from the scene. They should know their place now, but the red head wasn't so forgiving. Especially when it comes to those who dares to cause any trouble for his family. He picked up the scissor that had made a small dent on the public restroom's wall off the ground and began walking towards the direction that the three seniors had fled.

"Sei, stop." Takara grabbed hold of his hand, causing him to stop in his chase. He turned to meet her light blue eyes that had visible concerns for his well being if he actually decides to continue chasing.

His anger slowly fading away, Seijuro let out a long sigh as he cooled himself down. She was probably the only person in the world that could stop him...Most of the time. He relented as his tensed arms relaxed and gave her hand a responding squeeze, earning him a soft smile from the usually expressionless girl. He immediately took out his cell phone and dialed a number, having it ring only once before it was picked up.

"Akashi Residence." A familiar voice greeted.

"This is Sejuro. Okanatsu, come and pick us up." The red head ordered.

"Understood, young master."

With that, he clicked and ended the call, returning the phone back in his pocket before turning to face the teal head. She knew exactly what's coming as she looked up to meet his glare.

"That was a close call...This was why I came with you." He started his lecture. Despite the calm tone, the girl could easily distinguish the slight anger and concern in it. "If I didn't go with you, those low lifes would've done something unforgivable."

"I know..."

"No you don't. This wasn't the first time." He sternly cut her off before she could continue, his eyes still sharply staring at her but it soon softened. "Takara..."

"...I'll be careful from now on." The girl hung her head to which the red head sighed before patting her head, earning him a cute small pout from her.

"Let's go back."

"Nn."

Before they could leave, a slight whine caught their attention as they turned their attention towards the source. It was behind a few bushes along the side of the path. Curiosity got the better of them as they approached the bushes, parting away the leafy branches before discovering a card board box with a black and white Alaskan Malamute puppy in it.

Its eyes looked up at the newcomers pleadingly as it slowly crawled its way towards them, the only thing blocking its way was the cardboard box's wall as it tried to climb over it to no avail. It whined again before it felt someone picking him up. Takara gently lifted the poor creature out of the box and cradled it in her arms as she looked into the puppy's eyes.

"Poor thing..." She murmured as she reached a hand and gently stroked the fur on its back.

Seijuro sighed. He knew damn well that the girl had a soft spot for cute things and if you see a cute puppy abandoned in a box, there's no stopping Takara from taking it back home with him. Their family had no policy about keeping animals inside the house, but... He looked back at her when she heard her giggle, the little thing was licking her fingers as she tried to pat its head.

_Maybe she would be more lively._

"You want to bring it back to our home?" That question earned a rather surprised look from the girl.

"Can we?"

He merely nodded in response and before he knew it the girl had probably the most brightest smile to date. Although she wasn't jumping with joy, that sincerely happy smile was her way to show that she was extremely happy. Although it wasn't as exaggerated as it was back in the nurse's office, it was still a breath taking sight to see her smile so brightly. And for a while, he wondered if those smiles and moments become more common now that they had entered middle school. Only with time would it unravel.

"...Do as you wish." He sighed again before turning to walk away.

He may not have waited to see it but he could tell that the girl's eyes lit up in delight as he heard the rustling of the bushes before hearing her steps. She had a slight _skip _as they walked, quirking his lips up just a bit as he noticed it. It's eight by the time they returned to the court and to their surprise, someone was still playing on it. The sound of the ball dribbling and squeaking sneakers became more clearer the closer they were to the court until they finally reached it to see a boy the same age as them.

He moved back to the starting position in half-court before running to the left and doing a simple lay-up, sweat beads were shed as he shook. He then stopped to noticed the two newcomers, taking a curious glance at them before his eyes widening when he spotted the blue haired girl.

"Kuroko? Kuroko Takara?"

The girl in question cocked her head to the side. How did this boy know her name? Seijuro immediately tensed up when the boy in front of them had said her full name and that both of them didn't recognize who it was.

"...Who are you?" The girl in question asked, confused as to why this boy knew her name.

"You don't remember me?"

The boy took a step towards them, alerting the two as Seijuro moved in front of his sister, his eyes glaring dangerously. Was he one of those bullies that had made their elementary lives a living hell? If he was, they would've remembered his face... Was he related to the incident back then? Who was this boy? His short messy mop of orange-brown hair with matching eyes did stand out but they never recalled anyone that bullied them to have such an appearance.

"It's me, Ogiwara Shigehiro. We used to go to Day care and the first few months of Kindergarten together."

Seijuro's eyes narrowed, even though he knew the person in front of them meant no harm, he needed to keep him away from Takara. Anything from the past may trigger her trauma once more. He raised his head a bit as he continued glaring at him before he too took a step forward blocking his way. The orange haired boy looked at the red head as he shifted with unease under his glare.

"Ano...May I ask who you are?" The boy tried to force a friendly smile as he asked.

"I'm his brother." Seijuro simply replied. "I believe you've mistaken her for someone else who had the same name."

The boy's eyes widened, bewildered for a moment before he argued. "No, I can't mistake her for someone else." He turned back to look at the petite girl who seemed to feel uncomfortable amidst the situation although she showed no signs of it on the outside. "Takara-chan! It's me! Shi-kun!"

Takara looked up just then at the mention of such a familiar nickname.

_Shi-kun...?_

Catching her attention, the boy smiled before he took another step only to be pushed back by the shorter red head. He returned his attention to the rather intimidating 'brother' of a certain blue haired girl which seemed to possess an even more threatening aura than before. He raised his hands up to let him know that he means no harm even though the red head already knew that.

"Leave us."

"Let me just talk to her a bit! Just a bit!" He pleaded as he was forced to take a step back.

But the thick atmosphere was sliced like butter as the red head felt a soft light weight landing on his shoulder gently, diverting his attention to the owner of the hand. Takara gave him a pleading look, with the unnecessary addition of the nearly matching light blue eyes of the puppy that was in her arms. Seeing her like this, there was no way he could decline as he relented and allowed her to talk to the orange haired boy.

"...Ogiwara-kun." She greeted him with his family name, earning a disappointed frown from the boy.

"Takara-chan..."

"...I'm sorry but even though I could vaguely remember you, I don't believe I could use that nickname anymore." The girl sadly stated, earning a deeper frown from the orange haired boy but he understood why. It had been nearly eight years before she vanished from the kindergarten. The only reason why he could still remember her was because she shared the same passion he had towards a certain sport and that they had spent a lot of time together playing said sport as well even though they were too young to actually 'play' the game. "To be honest, I'm actually glad to meet you again. You seemed to be doing well."

His expression lit up as he grinned in response. "Yeah! I have! I recently made it into the club and I might be able to earn my spot in their regulars team!"

She smiled at that. "That's good."

"Are you still playing basket ball?" The boy asked curiously as he fiddled around with the ball in his hands.

She merely nodded.

"Say, you wanna play a game with me?" Ogiwara asked with a bit of hope to play with the girl again but the red head stepped in.

"I'm afraid she had exhausted herself earlier and couldn't play anymore for today." Seijuro answered for the blunette in which the orange haired boy looked at the girl to see her nodding in confirmation to Seijuro's words.

"Really? That's too bad then..." The boy's smile fell before dribbling the ball once on spot. "Well, I guess we could play a bit next time if we ever meet again."

The red head looked over his shoulder at his sister, seeing her looking back at him with a hopeful look. He sighed as he gave in before nodding in response to the other boy's question, earning a bright smile from him. "We will..."

"That's great! Well, I guess you guys are leaving anyway so I'll see you some other time!"

The two nodded before leaving but the orange haired boy stopped them once again.

"Wait!" He gained both their attention before he smiled at Seijuro. "Mind if you tell me your name?"

Usually, he would ignore the request and continue to walk but sensing that the boy seemed to have no harmful intentions and the evidence that he seemed quite close with his sister back before the incident, he decided to introduce himself. "Akashi. Akashi Seijuro."

"I look forward to play with you too, Akashi-kun!" The orange haired boy grinned before he turned back towards one of the basket ball goals and shot the ball.

The two soon found themselves back from where they entered the park from, still hearing the faint sound of a basketball dribbling or hitting the rim or board of the goal post. Waiting just by the sidewalk was the same car that they took to school, the chauffeur was standing by it, holding the door to the passenger seats at the back open for the both of them before closing it and returning to his driver's seat at the front.

"Akito-sama and Rin-sama were worried." Okanatsu informed the two as they drove their back home.

"...We do not need them to worry about us, we're old enough to take care of ourselves." The red head retorted.

"Sei..." Takara eyed her brother with concern.

The rest of the trip back home was silent after that.

* * *

Ogiwara once again shot the ball beyond the three-pointer line, cheering with a fist pumped to the night sky as he hopped after the ball went in. He jogged up to the goal and picked up the ball before a thought popped up in his mind which screamed that he forgot about something. He once again walked his way back to the spot before moving backwards a bit more and aimed.

It was then when he finally realized what he had forgotten as he shot the ball with a slight split-second distraction. "Oh! I forgot to ask for their numbers!"

The ball hit the board before it rebounded against a certain oranged haired airhead. "_Ite!_"

* * *

The second day of school arrived in a flash and the Akashi 'siblings' got out of the car they were riding in, much to their annoyance. They had asked to be allowed to walk to school just like any other students their age but their mother insisted that they shouldn't 'waste their energy on such meaningless efforts'. Seijuro sighed as he looked back at the car that was driving away.

_Since when did Oka-san and Oto-san started acting like this?_

He slung his schoolbag over his shoulder before he turned to see if his sister was ready in which she responded with a nod and a slight miniscule smile. He returned the smile before it was replaced by his serious facade, the same could be said for the teal head as her small smile faded into a blank expression. They entered the school with many eyes on them as they went in.

"Hey! Isn't that one of the freshmen that had beaten the second stringers yesterday?"

"Didn't that guy just came to school in that expensive looking car?! He must be rich!"

They frowned as they overheard the gossiping around them, noting that they did not notice the smaller girl following closely behind the one they were gossiping about. But they ignored it, both good and bad rumors that were spreading. It didn't matter to them, they were used to it. At the moment, most rumors were more like praises for their feat but they knew that sooner or later, most of those rumors would die off and would be replaced by more darker ones.

"Akashi-kun! Taka-chan~!"

They stopped in their tracks as they heard a familiar voice, turning to greet the bubbly pink-haired girl and her childhood friend.

"Yo, Akashi, Taka." The tanned boy greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning Aomine-kun, Satsuki-chan." The teal head returned their greetings politely with a slight bow. Akashi just nodded in response.

"No need to be so formal Taka-chan~" The pinkette grabbed hold of the smaller girl's shoulder as she tried to stop her from bowing in apology. "We're friends!"

The blunette smiled at that, she hadn't forgotten about that. It was out of habit for her anyway. "Nn."

"_Ohayo_ everyone~" They all turned to see a giant purple haired boy walking towards them while he munched on a bag of chips in his arms. They all waved at him before noticing a rather large plastic bag with more snacks in it and sweat dropped. Does this guy ever stop eating?

They soon noticed a green haired boy just by the shoe lockers at the lobby, a toy frog situated on his left palm as he reached for his pair of indoor shoes only to find a love letter slipping out when he opened it. They looked at him curiously as he bent down and picked it up before seeming to contemplate on how to respond to this.

"Oi, Midorima..." The tanned boy eyed the white envelope with a pinkish outline incredulously. "I-is that a _love letter_?!"

"...It can't be." The green head denied as he turned it over to see a heart-shaped sticker keeping it sealed and sweat dropped.

"That's definitely a love letter~" Satsuki squealed before she skipped forward somehow pulling the smaller teal haired girl with her. "Who is it?! Who is it?!"

"Baka...I'm not opening it."

"Dooooo ittt!" The pinkette pressed as she leaned closer with a devilish glint in her eyes.

"..."

"I believe we should head to our class rooms to avoid being late." Seijuro's voice broke the tension as he walked by, followed by Takara. The others quickly followed them after getting their own pairs of indoor shoes before they had to part ways to enter their respective classes.

"Remember, we have the try outs after school." The red head reminded them before hand.

"Yeah, we're definitely not gonna miss that."

"Okay~"

Soon, the bell chimed just as each of them entered their class rooms. Just in time before their homeroom teachers entered their classes with the stacks of files, binders and whatever in their arms. Roll call took place in class 1-A with a certain teal haired girl almost being marked absent if it weren't for her speaking louder than her usual, even though that was still barely loud enough to get the teacher's attention.

"Kuroko-san, please speak up to let me know that you're here." Their teacher, Bando-sensei frowned as he looked back at the clip board in his hands. "Alright, so today will be quite hectic after school due to all the club recruitment that will be taking place. Good luck!" Anyone would definitely imagine adding '_with surviving_' behind that line as they gulped down lumps that were stuck in their throats.

For both Seijuro and Takara, it was a different story. They were excited in contrast to many in their class who were dreading the moment when they step out of the main school building only to be bombarded with various club advertisements both verbal and on paper. Only kami-sama would know if they could survive the onslaught of club recruitment.

Despite not knowing exactly if the older students' or their older siblings' claims of the infamous club recruitment day were true, something in the back of their minds told them to run away on instinct or find their suited clubs as soon as possible before they end up being piled down by other clubs.

The younger of the siblings looked back to glance at her brother as he smirked back before nodding. They're not going to be having the problems that many would have when after school comes along. All they needed to do is endure the next few hours of classes before finally the bell chimes. The first three classes passed by in a flash as the school bell chimed, signaling lunch break.

The pinkette immediately glomped the smaller girl beside her before they made their way towards Seijuro and Midorima which the latter decided to tag along because of what today's forecast had predicted. They met up with the other two outside in the hall way before heading down towards the cafeteria section of the main building. It was much more full than they had thought as they saw a sea of students crowding around the counters in their attempts to order.

"Uwah~ How are we suppose to get our lunch like this?!" The pinkette whined beside the blunette as she scanned the crowd for a weak spot before pointing towards it.

"Sei, over there."

The red head merely nodded before heading to the spot where the teal head pointed followed by the other boys of their group, grabbing the shoulder of the closest person in the back to get their attention. At first the boy turned to glare with an irritated face before widening his eyes as he noticed the tall giant figure of a purple haired freshman followed by the others around said giant with a rather ominous aura.

"...They sure have a rather intimidating look..." Satsuki commented as she sweat dropped, watching as the crowd parted ways for them.

"Takara, Satsuki, we will order for you, go and help us find seats." The red head called out before remembering that he only knew what the blue haired girl would order. "What would you prefer, Satsuki?"

"Don't worry, I got her order." The tanned boy assured as he gave the girls a thumbs up.

The pinkette sighed before she turned her attention back to the smaller girl only to find out that she had vanished. "Eh~!?"

* * *

The bluenette had found an empty table near a corner of the cafeteria by the time her pink haired friend had realized she was gone. Gingerly, she patted the seats just to make sure they were clean before sitting down and deciding to spend the next few minutes in the book she brought from home. It was a small romance novel which she found cheesy but it was one of those few ones that she hadn't read. And so she decided to try and finish it.

"Taka-chan~" She looked up to see a wheezing pinkette reaching the table. "That's mean! You suddenly disappeared!"

"Sei said to look for seats." The smaller girl answered with a deadpanned look. "Sorry."

"Mou..." Satsuki sighed before sitting down next to the blunette before noticing the small novel in her hands. A cat-like mischievous grin tugged on her lips. "I didn't know Taka-chan likes such cheesy love stories~ Cute!"

A slight flush tinted her cheeks as she hid them under the novel, retorting. "I'm merely finishing the last of the books in my family's library..."

"Eh...?" The pinkette didn't seemed convinced as she leaned closer towards the smaller girl with a suspicious stare. "Is your family's library full of them?"

"...No. It's mostly text books and history books, a very small percentage of it consists of fiction." Takara monotonously answered as it seemed her blush had faded away before she once again engrossed herself in the book.

"Hm..." She hummed.

"Eh? That's rather rare! Two cuties sitting alone on a big table! Lucky day~" A new voice caught the two girl's attention as they turned to face the new arrival.

A rather delinquent-looking boy grinned as he placed his tray down on the table they reserved, earning confused looks from the two. His school uniform was half-buttoned without his tie, his ash-grey hair was spiked along with one or two piercings on his ear. His whole appearance was literally screaming 'Bad' to anyone who looked at him.

"Ano...This table is reserved..." The blue haired girl said but the delinquent merely smirked.

"Eh? What's wrong with sharing a table?" He leaned down with his smug face only a few inches away from the petite girl. "I wouldn't mind, you shouldn't either." He grinned before sitting right across from the two. He then eyed the pink haired girl before remember who it was. "Eh? You're the girl from last time!"

Realization hit the pinkette before she glared at the grey haired boy. "...You're the one from yesterday..."

"Whew, lucky! I get to meet such a _hot_ girl again!" The boy laughed before he suddenly leaned forward with a leer. "You look like a girl I could get used to."

"Who the hell are you?!" They all turned to see the new arrivals. The four boys glared at the grey haired delinquent who seemed bewildered at who they were. He glared back at them in challenge.

"What? Who the hell are you people?" He sent the question back at them, causing Aomine to growl before he was stopped from strangling the delinquent by Seijuro's arm.

"We're with the two ladies." The red calmly answered, his gaze metthe two girls before snapping his attention back to the grey haired boy with a calmer look. "I believe they reserved it just for us and us _only_."

Noticing the tension beginning to thicken, the grey haired delinquent clicked his tongue in annoyance before leaving the table and abandoning his meal tray, passing by the group of boys with an unyielding look. Seijuro could tell that the delinquent will soon try to find his way into their group and mess about, especially with the two females of their group.

"Thank kami-sama you all arrived!" The pinkette sighed in relief while the teal head relaxed her previously tensed body.

"Who the hell was that?" The tanned boy questioned as he frowned, setting Satsuki's meal in front of her before sitting across from her.

"We don't know, he just suddenly barged in and tried to flirt with us!" The pink haired girl answered before going wild with her explanation on the situation before they had arrived.

Seijuro sat beside the teal head, setting her meal tray in front before handing her the utensils to eat. "Are you okay?"

"Nn." She nodded before focusing back on her meal. She was actually feeling a tad bit hungry while they waited for the boys to come, finally being able to have something in her stomach. She clapped her hands together lightly, muttering an 'Itadakimasu' silently before she began eating her meal.

"Ano..."

They all looked up to see another new arrival to the table, this time a girl that seemed to be in the same year as them with bright orange shoulder-length hair. Uncertainty could be seen in her orange-amber eyes as they wandered around the table before she stuttered out, "Is there enough seats for one more?" She forced an awkward smile as she waited for an answer, reaffirming her grip on the tray of food in her hands.

"...Yeah, we have room for one more." The tanned boy was the first to speak up as he noticed that the girl was actually in his class. "You're...Uh...That Honousaki..."

"Hai, I'm Honousaki Haruka." She bowed slightly.

Everyone didn't mind about it as she sat down next to the purple haired giant before she awkwardly murmured her pre-meal greetings, quietly eating her tray of food. Satsuki, being the usual initiative one took lead as she tried to get the new girl's attention. She didn't like how the girl feels left out while they ate and so decided to know about her a bit more.

"Neh, Honousaki-san! What class are you in?" The pinkette initiated, a friendly smile on her face like usual.

"She's in the same class as me." Aomine answered it for her, to which the pink haired girl glared at him in response.

"I'm asking her, not you!"

"B-but it's true, we're in the same class." The orange girl said as she raised her hand in an effort to calm the two childhood friends that were now bickering.

"It's alright to leave them be, they're usually like this." Takara interjected, amused by the small little war of childish name-calling by the two of them.

"_Ahomine!_" Satsuki ended up victorious as she rendered the tanned boy speechless with that final nickname.

"W-what?! _Aho_?!" Aomine spluttered out before hearing the orange haired girl laugh along with a slight snicker from both Murasakibara and Midorima. Seijuro just smirked at that while the blunette had a small amused smile at such a childish name.

"It actually kind of fits you." The teal head mused, earning an incredulous look from the tanned teen.

The pinkette glomped her as she cheered. "Yay! Taka-chan also found it to be a perfect match!"

"Wh-Hey!" The tanned boy tried to retort but he was at a loss here.

"Do you agree, Haru-chan?" Satsuki suddenly asked the orange haired girl to which she caught by surprise.

"H-Haru-chan?!" She stammered as she repeated the nickname the overly bubbly pinkette had given her.

"Is something wrong?" The pink haired girl tilted her head questioningly.

"No, there isn't." She shook her head before remembering she was being asked. "And yeah, I would have to agree."

"W-what?! Honousaki! Don't go to Satsuki's side too!" The tanned boy flew his arms up in humorous protest before giving up. "How do you girls even get so friendly? You just met her like moments ago..."

"Why can't we?" Satsuki challenged as she stuck her tongue out, daring the tanned boy to start up another name-calling battle.

"Anyway, remember what we're going to do after school." Seijuro's reminder ceased the bickering as he finished up the last of his meal, being silent for the whole time with an amused look in his eyes. "The basketball club try outs is getting closer and I have no doubt that we would be put into the first string _at least_." One could hear just how confident the red head seemed as he claimed.

"Basketball? And first string nonetheless?!" The orange haired girl gave the red head an incredulous look before she realized who they were. "Ah! You're all the ones from yesterday! You all beaten the second stringers!"

"You took that long to noticed that?" The tanned boy muttered as he continued to dig into his meal.

"Well, it doesn't matter if we were teamed up yesterday. Today would be different." The green haired boy finally spoke as he adjusted his glasses.

"Are you all going to sign up for the club too?" Haruka asked as she looked at each one of them.

"Nn! Even Taka-chan here too~" The pinkette nodded before once again giving Takara a surprise attack hug from the side. "But she's going to join as a player!"

The girl's eyes widened. "Really?!"

The teal head merely nodded in response as she tried to pull the pinkette off of her.

"_Sugoi_..." Haruka murmured before she shook her head. "Wait a minute, but isn't it only for boys? There's no girls team at the moment so all we could do is sign up as managers."

"We convinced the assistant coach to give her a chance to try." Seijuro answered as he eyed the new girl. "Are you also joining?"

"Nn! As a manager." The orange haired girl nodded.

"Me too!" The pinkette smiled before she realized something and frowned. "But...Isn't there only one spot for that position?"

"Not necessarily." Midorima interjected. "There's a manager position for each string. Of course, the best ones out of all the candidates will be put in the first string, second string and third string."

The two girls nodded before looking at each other with determination burning in their eyes. "We'll make it!"

The red could only looked on as he crossed his arms. He eyed the new comer curiously, seeing the determined look she gave to the pinkette. He could only wonder what types of skills does she has as a manager. He would probably soon find out. Getting up, he picked up his now empty tray and informed the others of the bell. "Lunch is about to be over soon."

"Right!" They chorused before they quickly finished what they had and followed the red head. It was on instinct that everyone knew that Seijuro was their leader now, his charismatic aura and commanding tone gave off a vibe that seemed to have earned the group's respect within days of meeting him. But they all had the same determined look as they left the cafeteria after putting down the trays, they all have the same goal in mind;

They were going to succeed in the upcoming basketball try outs.

* * *

**Sorry for the wait! Here's the next chapter! I have introduced Ogiwara and a new OC this chapter! Whew! Next up, it's the try outs for the basket ball club! Can they impress the club's head coach enough to put them on first string? Stay tuned and find out next time! **

**Also, the cover art for this is merely temporary! It belongs to whoever the artist is on the web, since I just used it from searching on google. xD**

**Reviews, Favorites and Follows are much appreciated! They help motivate me! See you next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Teiko's Princess**

**Fifth Quarter: The Try Outs: Basics  
**

The bell chimes, marking the end of the school day. Many within the class 1-A had packed and left in a hurry, leaving only a few who stayed in the classroom just a bit longer. Like yesterday, the four that were part of a group that had become the center of most of the student body's talks and discussions met each other before leaving to meet up with the other two. The strangest thing about it was that despite the talks claiming there were six of them, many didn't know who that sixth person which was also the fifth player was. What they described was a '_ghostly blur_' that had left the senior second stringers glued to their spots with their mouths agape.

Despite that, they didn't care, knowing that their 'fifth player' would rather stay silent and unnoticed. Leaving the classroom, the four walked down the now silent and empty halls, meeting up with Aomine and their giant, Murasakibara at the doors to their respective classrooms before heading downstairs and out the building. As expected, outside was as hectic as their homeroom teacher had said. Even before they could even step one foot outside, distant shouts of advertisements for specific clubs and once in a while, a rather frustrating outburst from some freshmen that couldn't take on the chaotic situation they were thrown in after school.

"Satsu-chan! Taka-chan!" A familiar voice caught their attention amidst the loud barking and shouting of various club representatives, turning to see Honousaki Haruka running to them, waving.

"Haru-chan!" Satsuki greeted back, meeting with the orange haired girl halfway, followed by the other remaining female then the boys.

"I was waiting here because I was too scared to cross the courtyard through that crowd..." Haru took a second to glance over at the chaotic scene that laid before them before shivering a bit from the thought of getting through that place they called the 'recruitment convention' of their school.

"Yeah...I don't think I'd want to go alone as well." The tanned boy gulped as he stared at the crowd that stood between them and the gyms of the school.

"Honousaki-san, you could've waited with Aomine-kun." The petite teal head said, tilting her head slightly to the side as she looked questioningly at their new female acquaintance who only squirmed under her gaze.

"Mou, Taka-chan! Just call her Haru at least~" Satsuki pouted at the smaller girl's habit of being formal, even she would sometimes revert back to calling the pinkette by her family name.

"...Okay."

"We should get going, the try outs are starting soon." The red head interjected as he started walking towards the noisy crowd that was in their way. "Stay together."

They all chorused their agreement in sticking together as they calmly walked towards the gym, catching the attention of the students nearest to them in the crowd before it reached the students from the back as the shouts of advertisements and hollering of different kinds of response were diminished to mere murmurs and looks of wary as the group of freshmen approached.

"Hey, it's those freshmen who humiliated a bunch of Seniors in the second string..."

"No way! Isn't it already hard enough to even enter the second string? Those are the second best right under the first string!"

Despite the popularity of the basketball club and its huge count of members, only those that showed some potential could even join it, just barely managing to get into third string. With over a hundred applicants, it was usually only a mere fifth of that number would be qualified to be an official club member. And throughout all of Teiko's long history, not a single freshman had ever been able to reach first string. So when such a miracle as seeing a group of freshmen able to get a twenty score lead against the best and most notorious seniors in the second string before they started raising their level of dirty plays, the group of first years had established quite a first impression and reputation among the students.

As they approached, the crowd seemed to part ways as if it was the red sea, allowing the group to pass through. It was rather uncomfortable for them, especially for the three girls as they found themselves being eyed at questioningly by many. Some of them were rather creepy as well. It was times like these that the other two girls would wish that they had the same lack of presence as their smaller teal haired friend who seemed to have been spared from being ogled at by the majority of the male population.

It was probably by coincident that possibly the most good looking of the first years were all in one group, including the new addition of Honousaki Haruka who had also been catching the attention of many boys both from their year and those above.

As calm as they may be on the outside, they were rather anxious on the inside, seeing the sea of eyes just looking at them as they passed through. But they maintained their own blank or intimidating mask as they moved on until they had finally reached the sports facilities not without hearing a few sighs of relief from behind them as they entered the gym where the try outs were starting.

As soon as they stepped in, clear sounds of basket balls dribbling and sneakers squeaking flush right towards them, filling them with excitement. Aomine couldn't help but grin widely as he picked up his pace, followed by his childhood friend who had dragged her cute teal haired friend and followed by the last female of their group. Midorima muttered something under his breath about basketball freaks as he followed behind with the giant behind him, munching on a new bag of chips. Seijuro smiled as he noticed the eager looks on most of them as they finally entered the court not before checking in with the club members.

"Did you guys applied for the club?" asked a second year second stringer who was sitting at a table with papers spread all over it. His eyes looked skeptically at them as he sorted them out.

"Well, we didn't apply..." Aomine admitted as he rubbed the back of his head, averting his eyes away from the second year sempai.

"We were told to attend the try outs by your assistant coach." Seijuro stepped up, eying him with an intimidating look.

"A-ah...What are your names?" The second year stuttered, searching the mess on his table for that special list which the first string captain had given him earlier.

"Akashi Seijuro."

"Aomine Daiki!"

"Midorima Shintaro."

"Murasakibara Atsushi~"

The second year ticked their names, marking them present before his face formed a confused and incredulous look. "I-is there a Kuroko Takara here?" He called out, raising an eyebrow while muttering. "...That's a really girly name for a boy..."

"I'm here." A soft voice answered, startling the boy who was checking them in. He nearly fell off his chair as he struggled to recover.

"_You're _Kuroko Takara?!"

"Hai." The petite girl nodded.

"Is this some joke?" The second year blurted out, catching everyone's attention. "A _girl_ was invited to try out?! By the assistant coach himself?!"

"...Is there a problem?" The venomous hiss from the red head made the boy cower as he frantically shook his head, anymore harder and he would've gotten a whiplash. "Tch."

"Sei, it's okay." Takara sighed as he turned to bow politely at the poor frightened sempai. "Sorry for the rudeness."

"A-ah...It's not a problem...I-I was being rude first..." He stuttered out, a blush slowly creeping its way onto his face as he finally got a good look at the teal haired girl. She was cute. "A-anyway, go line up with the other applicants over there." He thumbed towards a line of freshmen at the back as he went back to his work. "G-good luck. Oh! And the changing rooms are at the back." He pointed further down the gym where there were doors leading to the locker rooms. "There's also a female changing room there." He added. much to Takara's relief.

"Thank you."

Next came the other two females, they cheered and wished their teal haired friend good luck before glomping her and wishing the others luck as well. Satsuki cleared her throat as she stood in front of the table, catching the same second year the players had to deal with. He looked up and once again felt his cheeks burn as he noticed another two good looking females had came. What's with all these pretty and cute girls joining all of a sudden?

"You two are here for..."

"Manager position." They both answered.

"O-okay, names?"

"Momoi Satsuki."

"Honousaki Haruka."

The boy nodded as he ticked the side of their names on the list of manager candidates, gesturing them to the left where a group of freshmen both male and female were sitting down on the benches. The two thanked him with smiles which caused him to go beet red before they made their way towards the benches. The two thanked him with smiles which caused him to go beet red before they made their way towards the benches. They took a glance at the line of applicants and spotting their friends standing straight as they were being inspected by a teacher who must've been the club's supervisor.

Takara, being the only girl there and the shortest stood out like a sore thumb. They cringed as they imagined what their smaller friend might have to do.

* * *

On the other side of the court, the new freshman applicants all lined up, standing straight as the club's teacher slash supervisor took a few seconds to inspect them. He looked at the list in his hand as he matched them with the students before he reached her name.

"...Kuroko Takara?"

All the applicants save the four who knew who Takara was glanced at each other in confusion.

"Here." A timid soft voice that was most definitely _not _belong to a male answered at the end of the line, right beside Seijuro and caught the attention of everyone in line.

"Alright then." The supervisor looked impassive, he must have been informed about it beforehand by the assistant coach as he walked back to the middle. "Alright! Welcome first years to Teiko Basketball Club's try outs! Not all of you will be able to join and I'm pretty sure very few who passed would even reach second string. But do your best! Good luck!"

He stepped back, allowing a first year to step up front and barked out what their first try out was. "Alright! You're all going to go through the basic physical trainings first! You'll need to do is shuttle running! Pair up with someone so that one could mark down the laps while the other does the run! There's a time limit that I will start as soon as everyone's ready! It's 3 minutes! The number of shuttles you do will affect your results in the end and which string you'll be put at!" His eyes narrowed at them as he added a warning in a low tone. "...No cheating."

"Yes sir!" They all chorused before scrambling to find a partner.

"Takara." The small blunette looked towards Seijuro at the call of her name. "We should partner up."

"Nn." The blunette answered with a nod as they moved to get ready. "Are you going first or me?"

"You first." He gestured politely for her to be the first to take the first test, smiling with a knowing look as she too had a small smile on her face.

She got in line along with other applicants as they lined up on one side of the gym, each of them readying themselves for the run. Takara bent her legs slightly as her eyes fixed on the other end of the gym where the small orange cones marked the check point a few meters away from them. Meanwhile, the first stringer in charge handed out a piece of paper and pencils towards the others who were going to count the laps.

"Alright! Listen up! On my mark, you'll start and when I blow my whistle you will stop immediately. Am I clear?"

A wave of murmurs responded to the first stringer's instructions as they tensed up and awaited the call to start. Just as the whistle blew, a slight breeze passed by the two boys next the Seijuro causing them to stop for a split second with confused looks on their faces. Was that a breeze just now? They looked around to see that none of the doors of the gymnasium that lead outside were open. The one counting was the first one to snap out of his daze before he quickly tried to get his partner moving.

"What are you standing there for?! Go! Run!"

His partner nodded, snapping out of his own daze before he sprinted to the checkpoint but along the way, the boy felt slight breezes gently blowing by to his right. Turning, he nearly fell over in surprise as he thought he saw a light blue blur zip by him. "W-What the hell was that?!"

Seijuro smirked as he watched the rest of the participants look their way. "That's four, Takara." He calmly informed just as the teal haired girl returned on her fourth lap within the first twenty seconds.

"Hm, I should slow down a tiny bit. I don't want to burn all my stamina on just shuttling." The girl mused as she zipped back to the checkpoint and back with a sigh. "Five." She then twitched as she felt a dozen pairs of eyes on her which made her feel uncomfortable as she glanced towards the rest of the freshmen and frowned. She either keep her presence low or sacrifice that for the right speed that wouldn't drain her energy within seconds.

"Just keep going." The red head grinned.

She nodded and once again reached the cone and back with a burst of speed that barely anyone could keep up with. The only ones who were not surprised were the ones who knew who she was.

"Not bad." Aomine grinned as he watched the teal haired girl darted from the start to the cones and back again in a blur.

"Kurochin is fast." The purple giant commented as he ticked for another lap made by his tanned partner.

"She's reckless." The green head frowned as he sped off for another lap with another random freshman counting his laps for him.

* * *

"Was that Taka-chan?" Haruka blinked, her eyes were wide open after seeing how the rather small girl seemed to dart between Seijuro and the cones non-stop. "She's so fast!"

"Nn." The pinkette agreed as she watched Takara made another lap. "That's the fifteenth lap already and there's still one and half minutes left." She frowned slightly. "I hope she'll be okay. Her speed really burns her strength..."

The orange haired girl nodded before they both returned their attention to the senior manager who had been explaining the basics of what a manager should do, although he too was a bit distracted by a certain speeding blue blur that was with the freshmen recruits. The two girls couldn't help but stifle their giggles as the senior manager kept stuttering as his eyes darted from the group of manager candidates to the player candidates.

* * *

"Alright! Time's up!" The senior first stringer announced, blowing on the whistle to signal the end of the first test. Takara who was counting the laps for Seijuro stopped immediately and awaited for further instructions as the others frantically counted the last lap to the last second. Seijuro jogged up to her and sat beside her with a sigh.

"_Otsukaresama_." The teal haired girl said as she rechecked the amount of laps her brother did.

"You too." The red head nodded with a small smile before he took out the piece of paper that he used to mark the number of laps done by Takara. It stated 49. Glancing over to how many laps he did, he was eight laps behind her. He broke into a smirk when he saw that, knowing the out of the two of them, she would always be faster.

"Alright! Hand over the papers and we'll start with the next test!"

Everyone was once again paired together for the next test while the first stringer collected the paper and read through them. He froze when he read the number on Kuroko Takara, wide eyes looked up to search for that girl only to frown as he knew he wouldn't be able to find her. He looked at the others while keeping that name in mind to report to the assistant coach, finding other surprising results.

It didn't take him long to find out that the names of those who showed extraordinary results were also the ones on the special list.

_No wonder they caught Sanada-san's interest._

He double checked to see if he had everyone's results on the shuttle run written down before he nodded and looked back up. "Alright! Everyone, the next is sit ups!"

* * *

"So for the following two months, you will all be on trial." The senior manager explained as he looked at the clip board in his hands. "You'll be divided into groups of three later on and will be scouting, helping out with specific strings and plan out training regimes. Am I clear?"

"Hai!" Everyone chorused as they were free to watch the new recruits take the tests although most of them decided to leave to tend their own matters.

"I wonder how well is Taka-chan doing..." The pinkette scanned the area for a certain petite friend of hers before frowning to see said girl struggling to do even one sit up. "Ueeh~"

"What's wrong Satsu-chan?" Haruka asked before the pink haired girl directed her attention to where she was looking at and she too frowned. "Uwah! Taka-chan was so fast earlier when they did the shuttle run! How come she can't do any sit ups?!"

"I don't know either..."

They watched as Takara was finally able to make it up with both her hands behind her head.

"That's two Takara! Good job!" They overheard the red head said and sweat dropped. All this time and all she did was two?! The pinkette looked at her watch, noting that a minute had already passed since they started the test. How could someone be that _fast_ and that _weak _at the same time?! How could she even play basketball if she couldn't even do at least ten sit ups within a minute?!

"This looks bad for her, doesn't it?" Haruka carefully worded as she looked on with worry.

"She should be able to handle this! I'm sure of it!" The pink haired girl said with a tone of hope. Even though she only knew the smaller girl for two days, she pretty much got the outline of her personality as crazy as it sounded. And Takara was one _very _stubborn girl, she wouldn't give up just because of that.

_Gambatte Taka-chan!_

* * *

"That's sixty two, keep it up!" Seijuro tried not to frown at how his sister was doing with the sit ups. It should be about time before the time limit is reached and so far, Takara made it to the teens which was already quite a feat for her. Knowing the last time she insisted on doing these exercises, the teal haired girl barely made it to sixty within five minutes, she had definitely improved a lot.

"Mmf!" She grunted as she made the last one before a whistle was blown, signaling the end of the test. It was time to switch partners.

"You did better than last time." The red head said, trying his best to cheer her up as she pouted after the announcement came. He knew that she wanted to do better, to get stronger but it was near impossible for her weak body. But that's just that, she still had a chance to grow stronger and she will, he know she will. "You'll get stronger and you'll make it to the team with me."

"Nn..." She nodded before wiping the sweat from her head and switched positions with Seijuro, her knees resting on his feet as he got into a sit up position. Her soft hands weakly grabbed hold of his knees as they waited for the signal to start.

"Ready!"

_Peeeeeeet!_

As soon as the whistle sounded, Seijuro swiftly made one, two three and counting as the others did their sit ups rather sloppily or recklessly. The red head's fast and steady count caught the eyes of others as they noticed how behind they were compared to the small red head who seemed a bit shorter than average. But he wasn't the only one who seemed like a monster when it comes to these activities.

Not too far from the red head and his sister were three other guys who seemed to push to their limits as they made sit up after sit up without pause or heavily covered in sweat. They were already at least ten counts ahead of the rest by the time the first minute had passed and many were more focused on staring with an expression matching a gold-fish than trying to catch up by the time the second minute was over.

"Time's up!"

Everyone relaxed, the ones that were doing the sit ups collapsed onto the wooden floor of the gym with relieved sighs and panting. Everyone was catching their breaths save for five colorful individuals as they regrouped together and sat somewhere on the edge of the crowd of fellow freshmen. Aomine had a grin on his face while the others saved more of their energy by ignoring the tanned boy.

"I did 144 on that test." He boasted, dropping down to sit next to the siblings followed by Midorima and Murasakibara.

"156." The red head answered causing the others to widen their eyes in surprise.

"...141." The green haired boy muttered monotonously as he adjust his glasses to distract himself from comparing his results with the others.

"161~ It was tiring~" The purple giant drawled as he yawned before he looked around the gym. "Neh, is there any snacks around here?"

"I don't believe there's any snack vending machines nearby, Murasakibara-kun." The sole female in the group answered, still slightly worn out from the test earlier.

"Wow, Taka you look like you went all out on that test." The tanned boy commented as he observed her being grinning again. "You must've done quite a bit."

She shook her head as she looked down at the ground with a sad look in her eyes. "No...63."

They all stared at her incredulously save for Seijuro who glared at them instead. It didn't really make sense for the three who barely knew about the girl since yesterday, she had been going all out and taking on the whole enemy team by herself for a few times on the court. They expected her to be quite a strong built girl to be able to do that but it seemed like they were wrong.

"...63 per minute right?" The tanned boy carefully asked as he felt the ice cold glare from the red head beside him. Were those scissors he heard behind Seijuro's back?

"...No, that's the count I got for three minutes."

"That is way below average..." It seemed that his mouth couldn't shut up despite his mind continued to force it to keep quiet. Aomine Daiki, 12, probably marked his grave at the exact spot he was sitting.

"She did good." The red head interjected while sending death glares at the tanned boy who slowly backed away before he gave up trying to kill him with his eyes. "She definitely did better than before."

"_What?_" all three of their new friends asked in unison.

"I have a relatively weak body..." The petite blunette explained timidly as she moved slightly behind Seijuro.

"The next test is about to start." The red head interjected, ceasing this topic immediately as the first stringer started coming back to the group of freshmen with a bewildered look. He could tell it's because of the huge difference in results between the shuttle run and the sit ups of a certain petite girl within the group.

"Alright! Next up is push ups! Like the last time, have someone count for you and you'll count your partner's when your turn is over."

"Come on Takara." The red head said as he got up and left. The teal head followed suit after she bowed to their acquaintances with a small 'excuse us'. Once she caught up, they once again chose to be on the outside of the group of recruits before they decided who to go first. This time, it was Seijuro.

"Good luck." He heard her sister softly said before a small smile made its way on his face.

"I think you need it more than I do at the moment." He grinned as he got ready in a push up position.

"Nn..." Her cheeks flushed somewhat, knowing that she would definitely have the same if not worse results as she had on the sit ups test.

"Get ready!" The first stringer said before he took out the whistle again. Seeing that everyone was ready, he blew on the whistle and everyone that were doing the test first immediately started while their partners counted. He decided to walk around the group to see everyone's form and method of efficiently doing the test, noticing many of them were not as good as he expected and frowned.

But there were a few note worthy candidates among the less than satisfactory batch of first years. Particularly the ones that had been showing amazing and rather confusing results that were on the special list he was given by the second stringer that was assigned to do a small check in on the applicants. He stopped when he noticed a red head which was on that list named Akashi Seijuro. His form was perfect and he could easily see the muscles on his arms flex and relax as he did push up after push up.

Strangely, it almost feel like another weaker presence was around him and out of curiosity he searched the red head's surroundings to find a small girl with flowing teal-sky blue hair and matching eyes crouched beside Seijuro and counting his push ups. The first stringer was rather surprised he never noticed her and he wondered what a girl was doing here when a test was starting.

He was about to call out to her when he remembered something about a girl named Kuroko Takara who had somehow managed to gain the coach's approval to attend the try outs and was also put on the special list. He frowned when he remembered the difference in results when he compared her shuttle runs and sit ups. The shuttle run results had shown him that the girl was fast. Really fast. But when the results for sit ups came about, she was below average.

Checking the time on his wrist watch, he announced that there was one minute left which caused everyone to double their pace. Many of them were trying to cram as much push ups as they could, more than what they're usually used to and the first stringer couldn't help but wonder if they really needed to do that. He just hopes that they wouldn't collapse anytime soon, it would be a bother to bring them to the Nurse's office.

"Alright! Time's up!" He announced as he glanced at his watch. "Those of you who were counting, bring me the results and get back to your partner to start the test."

"Hai." The freshmen chorused as they gathered around him to give him the results of their partners. It took a while before everyone scattered back to their spots.

"Excuse me." A soft voice spoke out from right behind him, nearly making him jump as he regained his composure and turned around to see the sole female candidate with the piece of paper that she used to mark the number of push ups her partner did. "You forgot to get this one."

"A-ah. Thanks." He managed as he was given the results of her partner. "Get back to your spot now, we're about to start."

"Hai, sempai."

With that, the girl made her way back to the red head's side before she got into a push up position and to his surprise, it was a perfect form too. Maybe she wasn't so bad...? He glanced around to see that everyone was ready before he signaled to start with his whistle again and went back to observe the only girl in the group. If she was good enough to make it onto the special list then he should see for himself if she was any good.

...He frowned.

Her form was perfect but she could barely hang on as she took probably two to three seconds per push up. This had to be a joke right? But he decided not to pry any further and focus his attention on the results that he was given and noted three names and their results..

_Aomine Daiki, 122 push ups in three minutes._

_Murasakibara Atsushi 131 push ups in three minutes._

_Akashi Seijuro 136 push ups in three minutes._

He glanced once again to the pair of blue and red. Seeing how the red head kept on encouraging the girl as she completed another push up. From what he had heard, Akashi Seijuro always seemed to hang around that teal haired girl. He wondered what's their relationship...He shook his head. He's getting distracted, that's no good. He averted his gaze to other freshmen and continued observing the rest.

Soon, he stopped everyone as he announced the end of the test. Collecting the results, he then instructed them to go to the next gym for the last tests. Curiosity got the better of him as he sift through the results that were handed over to him before he found what he was looking for and frowned... The female applicant was at the very bottom on push ups as well.

"Maybe the coach and head coach are getting too old..." He muttered despite knowing that Sanada was in his thirties.

* * *

The group of freshmen were now in the next gym, followed by a few other students who were curious or just waiting for their friends among the freshmen participants in the Try Outs. Gathering on one side of the large indoor basketball court, they started chatting amongst themselves, wondering what the last test was save for the ones that were on the special list.

"It's going to be basketball matches." Seijuro guessed, although it's more of a claim as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Really? Dang, that's gonna be great!" Aomine seemed fired up at the mention of a match, grinning from ear to ear as he flexed his fingers. Everyone could tell that the tanned boy wouldn't hesitate to grab the closest basketball in sight as if his life depended on it.

"We would probably have to play against each other." The teal haired girl interjected with a frown, glancing over to the red head.

Seijuro knew immediately what that meant. There was a possibility that he and Takara would not be in the same group or team and he would be lying if he wasn't worried about the petite girl's well being if they were not grouped together. But then, he caught the most smallest of a reassuring smile from her and a nod to which he nodded back. She wouldn't want him to worry and that would be what he would do, trust that she would be okay.

Soon, another first stringer entered the gym and walked towards them with a clipboard in his hand. He didn't look very enthusiastic about it as he seemed to be trying to glare a hole through the board while scratching the back of his frustratingly. A little bit closer, they could hear him muttering about being late to some sort of event but most of them didn't seem to pay any mind about the fuming first string senior.

"Alright! Quiet down!" The first stringer shouted as ticks formed on his head from how disrespectful the first years were behaving. If looks could kill, then the glare the senior gave them would've massacred them a hundred times over. "I don't have much time so let's get straight to it! We'll be having trial matches against each other in random teams!"

A wave of murmurs was the only response from the crowd before the first stringer glared back at the clipboard in his hands again.

"When I call your names and the letter, then that will be your team. There will be four teams of five for today because we don't have that much time, it's getting dark out so let's wrap this up quickly!" He tapped the board with his pen as he called out the names. "Yumimura, Fushijou, Sumihara, Murasakibara, Shunhou. A."

The players with their names called gathered together. Most of them couldn't help but find the team rather amusing as everyone seemed like dwarves compared to the purple haired giant that stood with them nonchalantly munching down on a snack bar. One could wonder if he had some kind of supernatural or magical power that could summon any type of snack at will.

"Oi! Pay attention when I call the names!" The first stringer barked, irritated that the first years were not paying any attention to him. "Ichijou, Kaname, Sato, Himenoda, Aomine. B."

The tanned boy and the others gathered together in another spot with Aomine plastering a big grin. "I'm Aomine, _yoroshiku_!"

"Ah, same here. I'm Sato Yosuke." One of them returned the greeting followed by the others. It would seemed there's no problem for the tanned boy to fit right in. Takara didn't expect Aomine to be so outgoing, mainly because despite already knowing him for the past two days, he always had that bored and lazy look to him. Though it might be a possibility that the current group activity they're doing involves his favorite sport.

But whatever caused such a big personality change, it made the atmosphere amongst the whole club less tense and seemed to have lifted the mood to which many were grateful for. Takara smiled, seeing how well the tanned boy was getting along with the rest. At least it wasn't like they were isolated due to what they had did the day before, though it seemed like after that game their group had gained a small reputation amongst their fellow first years and even some second and third years in school.

But that reputation didn't seem like it was all good. Not when some of the students who used to be in Takara's and Seijuro's old private elementary school decided to spread some ridiculously crude and obviously false rumors around. Though those kinds of lies were easily exposed and had no evidence to back up its value of being true, they were still spreading rapidly throughout the whole school population and being the gossipers some students were, it wasn't long before the seeds were planted and it grew wild.

And all that happened in one day.

Takara sighed when she thought about it. It would seem that in middle school, information were passed around faster than in elementary. She shook her head and diverted her attention back to the first stringer who was still calling out names and assigning groups.

"Hanazuka, Taijou, Fujijou, Kanzo, Midorima. C." He called out, forming the next group.

They gathered in one spot and the four freshmen that was with the bespectacled green haired boy couldn't help but eye the item in his left palm in confusion. Sitting snugly on his left palm was a bunny plush doll in what seemed to be in a frilly dress. To others -boys mostly- holding such a thing in public would be embarrassing but the green head seemed unfazed by the weird looks everyone was giving him save for those he already knew.

"Seriously, Midorima? Just put the little guy down on a bench or something." Aomine sweat dropped as he made the suggestion, causing the teen mentioned to glare back at him.

"I will do that when we start playing." He adjusted his glasses, pushing it up his nose where it's more comfortable. "I don't need to listen to a basketball idiot."

"Oi! Uncalled for!" The tanned boy retorted.

"Break it up you two." The stern voice of the first stringer halted any more arguments that was going to spew out as he glared at the both of them. They suddenly felt a bit small when they were under those irritated and slightly angered eyes. "I don't got all day and I doubt the rest of you do too."

"_Baka_..." The tea head muttered as she turned away from them after the commotions died down. Seijuro couldn't help but snicker at her comment on the two acquaintances of theirs. Though he guessed they were more like friends now.

"Next group. Gorou, Sabutaki, Kibatou, Jin, Akashi. D."

Takara frowned once the next group was announced. It wasn't that she needed Seijuro to stick to her like glue but she did half-hope that she and the redhead would at least be in the same group. She was snapped out of her thoughts when the red head got up from where he sat on the ground beside her, sending a questioning glance at her. She only nodded and showed a slight smile before he nodded and walked away.

"The last group will be E." The first stringer looked up from his clipboard and scanned the different groups of first years. "Are we all good?"

"Yeah." They all answered. Some were content with the teams they were assigned to, the others were stuck in awkward silence with their teammates. Especially those who were with the giant who was standing out like a sore thumb among his team due to his height. Everyone seemed rather hesitant to talk to the big guy who was happily munching on a snack bar again after finishing the previous one.

Walking towards the group of first years that were assigned as 'E', Takara couldn't help but find it amusing when they were done introducing themselves only to look for their fifth player which was her. Seeing as it wouldn't do any good to stall any longer, she stepped up to them and tapped one of them on the shoulder, catching the boy's attention.

"Huh?" He spluttered as he took a step back in surprise. "Wha..."

"I'm Kuroko Takara, I'm the fifth member of this team. I hope we get along." She introduced herself as she bowed politely to the others, leaving them speechless. It was then when the cogs in their brain started to function again, remembering that there was a girl that somehow managed to participate in the try outs.

"A-ah...I'm Yuuki Daisuke." The boy that she tapped on the shoulder introduced himself followed by an apology on how he had reacted earlier to which Takara shrugged it off as a 'normal reaction' when people were meeting her for the first time.

She wasn't born to have low presence. That was something she developed for the past few years, years that she would rather not talk or even think about. Shaking away those thoughts, she got herself back in track and scanned the different groups around hers, giving a quick observation with her analytical eyes.

Many of Midorima-kun's team are average in height with semi-built bodies. They're most likely a balanced team. Aomine-kun's team seems to plan on focusing offense as many of them seemed to be itching to play already. Murasakibara's team...It's hard to tell from how the team seems to be distancing themselves from the giant but their bodies suggests that they're pretty fast, a good cover for the purple giant's large form which most probably meant slower mobility.

Then her eyes lands upon Seijuro and his team and pouted. She wanted to be in the same team as him since she doesn't know if she's even ready to work with random strangers...Could she keep up with them? Or is it the other way around? The teal head sighed and diverted her gaze back to her task on observing her rival teams.

The red head's team seemed mixed. But that wasn't what Takara was concerned about. Knowing him, he'd probably work his way around and form a perfect strategy with the pieces given to him. She internally sighed at that before concern clouded her mind. This was her first time working with people she had just met. Turning back, she observed her own teammates. But they seemed to squirm under her blank stare, total discomfort from having the only girl that was participating in this year's try-out inspecting them.

"Ano, Kuroko-san?" Daisuke asked as he tried not to look too awkward. "May I ask why are you staring at us?"

"I'm not staring. Just observing." She answered his question as if it was obvious and tilted her head to one side. "Is there something wrong?"

"Well..." He glanced at the others and notice how they too felt uncomfortable under her gaze. "It does kind of feel weird being observed like that."

"Oh." She nodded. "I'll stop then. I've already gotten enough information anyway."

The boys in her team gave her puzzled looks when she said that but she ignored them and started sorting out her mind, make note of her opponents' and teammates' strengths and weaknesses, and matching and predicting results between others and their team despite it not being very accurate, she's merely a human girl after all. She was still going over some back-up plans with herself in her mind when she snapped out of her thoughts by the conversation held by another team.

"Hey, that group got the girl in it." She heard one of them said.

"Yeah, it should be the weakest team out there. We should aim for them."

She clenched her fists when she heard that. They believe that because of her gender, she would hinder her own team?! She glared at the back of the the boys who were speaking about it earlier, noticing that they were in Aomine's group. She made a note to reach the pair's expectations about being 'bad'. Amongst those that she was staring, she noticed a shiver from her tanned friend and smiled.

"Takara."

She turned to see Seijuro walking up to her with a smirk. He must've overheard the conversation as well.

"I'll make them regret saying that." She muttered before heading back to her group. Seijuro's smirk merely grew wider in amusement. It would seem the match between Takara and Daiki would be quite an interesting one.

"Ku-Kuroko-san." Daisuke stuttered as he actually somehow sensed the dark aura around their only female teammate. He could have sworn he saw it visually emitting around the petite bluenette. "We were discussing about our roles."

"I see." The girl nodded, the dark aura seemed to be fading away slowly as her mind dove back to planning and devising certain strategies. Noticing Daisuke's height and muscle tone, she gave him one last observant look from head to toe which of course made him uncomfortable before asking him to be the power forward of the team.

"S-sure." He answered.

"I will be point guard." Takara declared as she looked at the other three boys in the group, eying the boy to the rightmost of the team. He had short brown hair with sharp eyes. Her guess was that he had accurate shots. "Migaya-kun? What position do you think you would do best?"

Migaya glanced up thoughtfully before looking at the girl. "I would say shooting guard."

_That's what I thought..._ She smiled, looks like her intuition was correct. She turned her attention to the next boy in her team, semi-shaved head and a taller height than Daisuke and a bit more built in body. "Katsumori-kun, would you mind playing as Center?"

"That's what I'm best at." He grinned in response to her question, earning a nod from her.

"Then I guess I'm small forward." The last boy said as he shrugged.

Takara turned to face him and noticed a few miscalculations on her part. "Actually Oja-kun, I'd like you to be point guard. You seemed like you're more suitable for that position than me."

"Are you sure?" Oja asked as he scratched his head. "I've never really played point guard before.

"Don't worry. You'll do." She assured him with a slight smile, making him blush as he looked away.

"O-okay then."

"ALRIGHT! Everyone, here's the team line-ups!" The senior shouted out, gathering everyone's attention as he brought back a white board with the teams marked in a competition styled leader board. "Look 'em up good!"

Everyone immediately gathered around to see which teams were against each other, making the place around the board quite crowded. She frowned as she had to push or even squeeze past all these males in front of her. Worse of all, they were already sweaty and smelly from the basics earlier. Even though she was also sweaty, she didn't actually smell at all compared to the rest of the people.

With her breath held in, she bravely entered the fray, squeezing past through the crowd with a bit of effort before finally ending up at the front with a slight stumble. Regaining her balance, she glanced up at the white board and searched the ladder chart before her eyes landed on her team, E and her opponent...

"Good luck."

She turned abruptly and found Midorima glaring a challenge towards her. He already knew what the girl could do and from the looks of it, on edge and wary of her. She returned his glare with a blank stare that sent chills down his spine before she replied with a monotone voice. "You too."

* * *

**Gomen! Took a while to write. xD Writer's blocks are bad... :( And the more I stall, the harder it seemed to be for me to write at all. xD Anyway, I finally managed to finish this chapter! Just hope it isn't boring you. xD But then again, I am writing at a really slow pace, I'll start picking up speed next chapter, promise!  
**

**To, Aleiaa and Sakura-hime99;**

**Thank you for reviewing! And I encourage others to review as well! It serves as a motivation along with the favs and follows! Thank you for your support! Dai suki~ 3**

**I'll try to update faster! I also have a few other fanfics in the planning;**

_**Princess of the Courts (Prince of Tennis)**_

_It has been four years since the disappearance of the renowned 'Prince of Tennis', Echizen Ryouma. But said person never actually existed in the first place. Enter Echizen Risa or "Lisa" as pronounced by her American friends as she settled down in Japan, a break away from the States and actual competitive tennis itself and focus more on her musical interest. But when she stumbled across a Mixed Junior Tennis Competition game, she would be torn between sports and music. What would she choose? (Fem!Ryouma, OOC, AU, RyoumaxKaidoh/Tezuka/Fuji)  
_

**_What?! (Love Stage!)_**

_"I have to see for it myself! There's no way that he-she was a man!" Unfortunately, he wouldn't have expected the landslide of hilarious and awkward situations that he'd get himself into just to strip that person near naked. (What-if Scenario: Fem!Izumi, Semi-yaoi(ShougoxRei), OOC, AU, IzumixRyouma)  
_

**See you next update!**


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